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THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE 

General Editor, C. H. Heefobd, Litt.D., University of Manchester 



THE TEMPEST 



EDITED BY 

FREDERICK S. BOAS, M.A. 

PBOFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, QUEEN'e 
COLLEGE, BELFAST 



AMERICAN EDITION 

REVISED BY 

KATHARINE LEE BATES, Litt.D, 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH MTEKATURE 
WELLESLEY COLLEGE 



D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



%"'%,k 



-i^t^;^ 



THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE 

> A MrDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. / 

^ Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B.A., Oxford. 

iAS TOU LIKE IT. / 

Edited by J. C. Smith, BLA., Edinburgh. / 
CORIOLANUS. 

Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B.A., Oxford. 
CYMBELINE. 
\ Edited by A. J. Wyatt, M.A., Cambridge. 

^ HAMLET. / 

Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B.A., Oxford,*^ " 
'^ HEKRY lY— FIRST PART. 

Edited by F. W. Moorman, B.A., Yorkshire College., 
HENRY V. 

Edited by G. C. Moore Smith, M.A., Cambridge, y 
HENRY Vin. ^ 

Edited by D. Nichol Smith,M.A., Edinburgh. 
JULIUS C^SAR. 

Edited by Arthur D. Innes, M.A., Oxford. 
KING JOHN. 
■y Edited by G. C. Moore Smith, M.A., Cambridge.) 

^KING LEAR. 

Edited by D. Nichol Smith, M.A., Edinburgh. : y 
MACBETH. ,j/ 

Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B.A., Oxford. '' 
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 

Edited by J. C. Smith, M.A., Edinburgh. 
EICHARD H. 

Edited by C. H. Herford, Litt.D., Cambridge. 
BICHARD HL 
, Edited by George Macdonald, M.A, Oxford. 

^^ EOMEO AND JULIET. / 

Edited by Robert A. Law, Ph.D., Harvard. / 
vTHE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Edited by H. L. Withers, B.A., Oxford. 
\THE TEMPEST. V 

Edited by F. S. Boas, M.A, Oxford. 
"^THE WINTER'S TALE. 



Edited by H. B. Charlton, M.A., Manchester. 
IT. > 

xthur D. Innes, M.A., Oxford. 

The remaining volismes are in preparation. 



^TWELFTH NIGHT. x/ 

Edited by Arthur D. Innes, M.A., Oxford. " 



COFSISIGHT, 1916, BY D. C. HbATH & Co. 

ij6 

V -7 1916 

CLA445534 



GENERAL PREFACE 

In this edition of Shakespeare an attempt is made 
to present the greater plays of the dramatist in their 
literary aspect, and not merely as material for the study 
of philology or grammar. Criticism purely verbal and 
textual has only been included to such an extent as 
may serve to help the student in the appreciation of 
the essential poetry. Questions of date and literary 
history have been fully dealt with in the Introductions, 
but the larger space has been devoted to the interpre- 
tative rather than the matter-of-fact order of scholar- 
ship. Esthetic judgments are never final, but the 
Editors have attempted to suggest points of view from 
which the analysis of dramatic motive and dramatic 
character may be profitably undertaken. In the Notes 
likewise, while it is hoped that all unfamiliar expressions 
and allusions have been adequately explained, yet it 
has been thought even more important to consider the 
dramatic value of each scene, and the part which it 
plays in relation to the whole. These general princi- 
ples are common to the whole series; in detail each 
Editor is alone responsible for the play or plays that 
have been intrusted to him. 

Every volume of the series has been provided with a 
Glossary, an Essay upon Metre, and an Index ; and 
Appendices have been added upon points of special 
interest which could not conveniently be treated in the 
Introduction or the Notes. The text is based by the 
several Editors on that of the Globe edition. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction v 

Dramatis PERsoNiE xxvi 

The Tempest . 1 

Notes 85 

Appendix A — The Preface and Prologue to 
Dryden and Davenant's The Tempest or 

the Enchanted Island 143 

Appendix B — Mrs. F. A. Kemble's Allegorical 

Interpretation of The Tempest 146 

Appendix C — Metre 149 

Glossary 157 

Index of Words 162 

General Index 165 



INTRODUCTION 



1. THE DATE OF THE PLAY 

The date of The Tempest is one of the most vexed problems of 
Shakespearean criticism, and cannot be fixed with complete cer- 
tainty. The play was printed for the first time, as far as we know, 
in the collected edition of Shakespeare's works, 1623, known as the 
First Foho. Thus all conclusions as to its date must be based upon 
any existing records in connection with performances, upon internal 
evidence, or upon conjectm-al allusions in contemporary writings. 

Himter, in his Disquisition on the Scene, Origin, Date, &c. of 
Shakespeare's Tempest (1839), assigned the play to the spring or 
summer of 1596. He identified it with Love's Labour's Won men- 
tioned by Francis Meres in his list of twelve of Shakespeare's plays 
(1598), and considered that its references to travelers' tales were 
inspired by Raleigh's narrative of his Voyage to Guiana (1596). 
Hunter fm-ther assumed that Ben Jonson, in the Prologue to 
Every Man in his Humour,^ was alluding to The Tempest in the 
following hues : 

"He rather prays you will be pleased to see 
One such to-day, as other plays should be ; 
Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the seas 
Nor creaking throne comes down the boys to please ; 
Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard 
The gentlewoman; nor roU'd bullet heard 
To say, it thunders : nor tempestuous drum 
Rumbles, to tell you when the storm doth come. 

There's hope left then. 
You, that have so grac'd monsters may like men.** 

In the italicized lines Hunter detected references to (1) the descent 
of Juno in the Masque in Act iv ; (2) the thunder and lightning in 

1 We know of no performance of Every Man in his Humour before 1598, but 
Hunter without warrant identified it with The Umers mentioned in Hens- 
lowe's Diary, Nov. 25, 1596, since proved by Fleay to be Chapman's Humoroua 
Day's Mirth. 



vi INTRODUCTION 

Act i, sc. 1 ; (3) the monster Caliban. But the allusions are very 
doubtful, and, in any case, they give no support to Hunter's theory. 
For this Prologue does not appear in the quarto edition, 1601, of 
Every Man in his Humour, and is first found in the folio edition of 
Ben Jonson's works, 1616. Apart from this, however, and from 
the evidences treated below, one fact is fatal to Hunter's hypothesis. 
Gonzalo's sketch of his ideal commonwealth (ii. 1. 147-164) is 
borrowed almost verbally from Florio's translation of Montaigne, 
but this translation was first printed in 1603, and then with a prefa- 
tory statement to the effect that, in 1599, it had not been begun. 

This debt of the dramatist to Montaigne forms the starting point 
of the German critic Elze's theory, which assigns the play to 1604. 
Ben Jonson, in his Volpone (iii. 2), 1605, alludes to thefts by Eng- 
lish authors from the French essayist. As Gonzalo's speech is the 
principal passage in extant Elizabethan literature taken from Mon- 
taigne, Elze concludes that the sarcastic reference is to The Tempest, 
which he accordingly places in the year between the publication of 
Florio's version and the production of Volpone. But the allusion is 
too vague to be thus pressed, nor does it gain much support from 
Elze's second argument that Shakespeare was also indebted to 
Darius, a tragedy by the Earl of Stirling, 1603, which contains 
(iv. 2) these lines ; 

"Let greatnesse of her glascie scepters vaunt; 
Not sceptours, no, but reeds, soone brus'd soone broken : 

And let this worldlie pomp our wits inchant. 
All fades, and scarcelie leaues behinde a token. 

Those golden Pallaces, those gorgeous halles. 
With fourniture superfluouslie faire : 

Those statelie Courts, those sky-encountring walles 
Evanish all like vapours in the aire." 

There is an undoubted similarity between these verses and Pros- 
pero's words (iv. 1) beginning "And, like this insubstantial pageant 
faded," but the parallel may simply have been accidental, as the 
transitoriness of earthly magnificence is a commonplace of thought, 
and even if Shakespeare had read Stirling's lines they might easily 
have found an echo in his verse later than 1604. 

The safer way to ascertain the approximate date of The Tempest 
is to set aside these highly conjectural inferences in favor of indis- 
putable evidence afforded by the metre, style, and spirit of the play. 
Shakespeare's metrical practice underwent great changes during his 
career as playwright, (a) Rhyme diminishes from Love's Labour's 



INTRODUCTION vii 

Lost, where it marks 62 verses in every 100, to The Winter's Tale, 
where it is entirely absent; in The Tempest there is one rhyming 
couplet. (6) Double endings tend to increase, though not uni- 
formly ; they are fewest in 1 Henry IV, 8 per cent, and most numer- 
ous in The Tempest, 35 per cent, (c) Enjambements or run-on lines 
increase from 8 per cent in The Taming of the Shrew to 46 per cent 
in Cymbeline; in The Tempest there are 41 per cent, (d) Speech 
endings not coincident with verse endings increase from 1 Henry VI, 
§ per cent, to The Winter's Tale, 87 per cent ; in The Tempest there 
are 84 per cent.^ By the first test The Tempest stands last but one 
among the plays ; by the second it stands last ; by the third, last 
but three ; by the fourth, last but two. The combined evidence of 
these tests assigns the play, beyond doubt, to Shakespeare's final 
period, approximately between 1608 and 1613. 

The evidence of style supports this conclusion. In Shakespeare's 
youthful works thought often lags behind power of expression, 
and we thus find thin, labored, and rhetorical passages. In the 
dramatist's central period, from about 1597 to 1606, thought and 
expression attain to an exquisite balance, and it is during these years 
that Shakespeare produces his most perfect work. Afterward, how- 
ever, his wealth of ideas tends to outgrow the capacity of his instru- 
ment, and the result is a style elliptical to a fault, and overriding the 
canons of syntax observed in earlier plays. Of this style in its fullest 
development The T'impest throughout is an example. 

The spirit of the play and the nature of its incidents also assign 
it to Shakespeare's last years. From about 1600 to 1608 he put 
forth, probably ander the stimulus of personal grief, his great 
series of tragedies. Later, his mood underwent a change, ac- 
companied by a change in his choice of materials. Romantic 
themes henceforth engaged his pen — tales of kindred parted by 
wrongdoing or misadventure, and reunited after many years. 
Reconcihation and repentance are the keynotes of this closing group 
of dramas, and in The Tempest they are struck in the clearest tones. 

Thus these converging lines of internal evidence forbid us to place 
the play earlier than 1608. On the other hand, it was well known by 
1614, as is plain from the Induction to Bartholomew Fair, where Ben 
Jonson uses these words : " If there be never a Servant-monster i' the 
Fayre who can helpe it, he says ; nor a nest of Antiques ? He is loth 
to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, 
Tempests, and such like Drolleries" The italicized phrases refer, 
beyond reasonable doubt, to The Tempest and The Winter's Tale, 

1 The figiires are taken from G. Konig's Der Vers in Shakspere's Dramen. 



viii INTRODUCTION 

which are mentioned in the Vertue MSS. as having been performed 
with twelve others. May 20, 1613, before the Elector Palatine and 
Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James. Dr. Garnett,^ 
trusting to the authority of these MSS., concludes that The Tempest 
was written for the royal marriage, which took place February 14, 
1613. The introduction (in Act iv) of the bridal masque, which 
has so little connection with the main plot, raises the strongest pre- 
sumption that the play was composed in honor of a wedding, and 
Dr. Garnett argues that everything corresponds with the court 
marriage of 1613. "The foreign prince come from beyond sea, the 
island princess who has never left her home, the wise father who 
brings about the auspicious consummation by his policy; all found 
their counterparts among the splendid company that watched the 
performance on that February night." Dr. Garnett further sees 
in the story of Prince Ferdinand an exquisitely skillful allusion to the 
sudden death of Prince Henry in November, 1612, during the prog- 
ress of the marriage negotiations. "The recent calamity is not 
unrecognised ; on the contrary, the supposed death of the drowned 
Prince is a most vital incident, kept continually in view. But by a 
consummate stroke of genius, the woe is taken from Prospero, the 
representative of James, and transferred to the house of his enemy. 
The lost prince is duly mourned, but not by his real father. James 
is reminded of his bereavement, but it is not obtruded on him. In 
the end the hitherto sonless Prospero gains a son, as the bereaved 
James is gaining one in the Palatine." 

Dr. Garnett's theory is suggestively worked out, but the date for 
which he contends is too late by a year and a half or more. Scholars 
have been slow to trust the entries in the Extracts from the Accounts 
of the Revels at Court, edited for the Shakespeare Society by Peter 
Cunningham in 1842, but now that Mr. E. P. A. Law has established 
their authenticity, it may be accepted as a fact that on November 1, 
1611, The Tempest was played at Whitehall before King James. 
The metrical evidence favors a date for The Tempest near the date of 
The Winter's Tale, which was seen at the Globe Theatre on May 15, 
1611, by Dr. Forman. The two plays seem to have been written 
almost at the same time, and the internal tests thus support Malone's 
suggestion that The Tempest wais inspired in part by Silvester 
Jourdan's narrative of the wreck of The Sea-Venture, the flagship 
of a fleet of nine vessels bound for Jamestown, off the Bermudas. 
The wreck took place in July, 1609, and during the latter part of 
that year much anxiety was felt for the fate of the crew, as is proved 

1 Universal Review, April, 1889, 



INTRODUCTION ix 

by the issue of a pamphlet by the Council of Virginia to allay 
apprehension. After the safe return of the shipwrecked company 
to England, Jourdan, who was one of their number, published his 
account, dated October 13, 1610. The parallel points between his 
tract and The Tempest are discussed on page xii, and they suggest the 
end of 1610 or the beginning of 1611 as the date of the play. But 
resemblances still more striking exist between the drama and another 
account of the disaster by William Strachey. This impassioned 
and highly poetic narrative, known as The Wrack and Redemption 
of Sir Thomas Gates, was written as a letter to a lady in England and 
dated July 15, 1610. How soon it found its way into print is not 
known, but its contents would naturally have become matter of 
common report. To sum up, we may assert that The Tempest 
certainly belongs to Shakespeare's final period, that it probably 
dates from the spring or summer of 1611, but that possibly it may 
be as early as the autumn of 1610. 

2. LITERARY HISTORY 

The Tempest is the opening play in the folio of 1623, and the text 
is of remarkable purity. It shares with The Two Gentlemen of 
Verona the distinction of being printed with more correctness than 
perhaps any other play in that volume. The shortest of Shake- 
speare's dramas except The Comedy of Errors, it contains only 2064 
lines. This exceptional brevity supports the view that it was 
originally composed for some Court entertainment. Some critics 
(e.g. Fleay and Grant- White) have conjectured that it has come 
down to us in a form abbreviated for this purpose ; but it must be 
remembered that the play, with its songs and dances and elaborate 
masque in Act iv, would take longer in representation than the 
number of lines suggests. 

In spite of Ben Jonson's sarcasm. The Tempest was evidently from 
the first a popular play, and was imitated by succeeding dramatists, 
as Dry den testifies, stating that it had "formerly been acted with 
success in the Black-Fryers : and our Excellent Fletcher had so great 
a value for it, that he thought fit to make use of the same Design, 
not much varied, a second time. Those who have seen his Sea- 
Voyage, may easily discern that it was a Copy of Shakespear's 
Tempest: the Storm, the Desart Island, and the Woman who had 
never seen a Man, are all sufficient Testimonies of it. But Fletcher 
was not the only Poet who made use of Shakespear's Plot: Sir 
John Suckling, a profess'd admirer of our Author, has foUow'd his 



X INTRODUCTION 

footsteps in his Goblins, his Regmella being an open imitation of 
Shakespear's Miranda; and his Spirits, though counterfeit, yet 
are copied from Ariel." These words are taken from Dryden's 
preface ^ to his own and Davenant's version of the play. The En- 
chanted Island, produced at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1667, 
and pubhshed in 1670. The original suggestion of this version came, 
as Dryden acknowledges, from Davenant ; the added scenes, as the 
German essayist Grimm has shown, are translated from a play by 
the principal Spanish dramatist, Calderon. 

In this Restoration version The Tempest is robbed of more than 
half its poetry and of all its moral elevation and exquisite purity of 
tone. Yet it would be unfair to deny that The Enchanted Island 
is a very deft piece of craftsmanship, and, measured by the artistic 
and moral standard of its day, must be pronounced a success. The 
somewhat tedious plot of Sebastian and Antonio against Alonso is 
omitted, as is also the conspiracy of Caliban and his alhes against 
Prospero. Instead, we have an amusing political burlesque. 
Stephano elects himself duke, with Mustacho the mate, and Ventoso, 
a mariner, as viceroys, but Trincalo (sic) sets up an opposition rSgime, 
supported by Caliban and his sister Sycorax, who becomes Trincalo's 
bride. The desire to share Trincalo's butt of wine makes Stephano's 
party submit to the rival rule, but after a joint potation discord breaks 
out again. All this is excellent fooling, which would be especially 
appreciated by spectators who had passed through the troubled 
period of the Civil War and Commonwealth. But the figure of 
Caliban is shorn of the features that clothe it with a wild poetry and 
dignity, and Ariel is vulgarized by being represented in love with 
another spirit, Milcha. 

In the main plot Miranda has associated with her a sister, 
Dorinda, while dwelling in another part of the cave is Hippolito, 
rightful heir to the dukedom of Mantua. Bequeathed in infancy 
to Prospero's care, he has shared his guardian's fortunes, and is kept 
thus secluded because his horoscope portends death should he see 
the face of woman. His chance encounter with Dorinda, and their 
love at first sight, followed by the similar passion between Miranda 
and the shipwrecked Ferdinand; the duel between the princes 
because Hippolito claims the right to love all women ; the apparent 
death of Hippolito and his restoration by Ariel's balms ; the attend- 
ant entanglements that ensue for a time — all this makes up a 
plot far-fetched and often disagreeably suggestive, but, unfolded 
in easy and fluent dialogue, very effective for stage purposes. The 

1 Given in full in Appendix A. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

opportunities for spectacular effect, in which the original play 
had been so rich, were yet further multiplied in the revised version. 
The Masque of Iris, Ceres, and Juno is left out, but instead we have 
one of devils and personified sins, which appears to Alonso and his 
companions, and another of the Sea-Deities, which closes the play. 
The success of this Restoration version is clear from repeated entries 
in Pepys' diary. Thus on November 7, 1667, Pepys writes: "At 
noon resolved with Sir W. Pen to go to see The Tempest, an old 
play of Shakespeare's, acted I hear the first day. . . . The house 
mighty full; the King and Court there; and the most innocent 
play that ever I saw. The play has no great wit, but yet good, 
above ordinary plays," A week later the diarist's verdict was more 
enthusiastic : "Saw The Tempest again, which is very pleasant, and 
full of so good variety that I cannot be more pleased almost in a 
comedy, only the seamen's part a little too tedious." And four 
more visits testify to Pepys' appreciation of the play, and to its 
hold on the Restoration public. 

In later days The -Tempest's magnetic influence has inspired inde- 
pendent works which seek to develop certain of its aspects. The 
Virgin Queen, by F. G. Waldron, 1797, is a melodramatic produc- 
tion narrating the additional dangers endured by Prospero and his 
relatives on the return journey to Milan. From these dangers they 
are delivered only when Ariel restores to Prospero his drowned book 
and buried staff. 

On a very different plane is Ernest Renan's Caliban,^ a drama- 
tized piece of pohtical philosophy. The scene is laid at Milan 
after Prospero's return, and deals with a second successful revolt 
of Caliban, who represents the spirit of modern social democracy 
viewed by unfriendly eyes. By working on the greed and dis- 
content of the multitude, Caliban supplants Prospero, who finds 
that his charms are of no avail against a generation that has lost its 
belief in the supernatural. Once enthroned, however, Caliban 
realizes that he is an Institution, and prepares to protect himself. 
He sees that Prospero, representing Art and Philosophy, may be 
useful in his service, and so refuses to give him up to the Inquisi- 
tion, representing Clericalism, which wishes to prosecute him for 
sorcery. "His works will be the glory of my reign. I shall have 
my share in them. I exploit him ; 't is the law of the world." 

It is under a different aspect that Caliban is viewed in Browning's 
powerful poem, Caliban upon Setebos. The untutored intelligence 

1 For a detailed analysis of Renan's Caliban, see Furness' Variorum edition 
of The Tempest, 383-386. 



xii INTRODUCTION 

of the savage (who, with his rudimentary sense of personality, speaks 
of himself in the third person) is groping among the mysteries of 
existence — the problem of pain, the apparently capricious govern- 
ment of the world, and the nature of the Being who is responsible 
for it. He conceives of Setebos, his dam's god, as a creature after 
his own likeness, cruel, cunning, and full of purposeless malignity, 
whose anger can best be evaded by a pretense of being miserable. 
Above Setebos he dimly imagines a higher power. Quiet, without 
joy or grief, and his hope is that Quiet may conquer Setebos, or 
that the latter may grow old and doze, which would be as good 
as if He were dead. But at this moment the bursting of a terrible 
storm warns him that his speculations have been overheard, and 
he grovels in an agony of fear. 

"White blaze — 

A tree's head snaps — and there, there, there, there, there. 

His thunder follows ! Fool to gibe at Him ! 

Lo ! 'Lieth flat and loveth Setebos ! " 

Musicians also have found The Tempest a fertile source of inspira- 
tion. At least thirteen of its passages have been used as libretti 
for songs. Two of the settings, to " Full fathom five," 1. 2. 396-403, 
and "Where the bee sucks," v. 1. 88-94, were, there is reason to 
believe, used in Shakespeare's own time. They are given in Wilson's 
Cheerfull Ay res or Ballads, 1660, with the name of the composer, 
R. Johnson. This Johnson, after being in the service of Sir T. Kytson, 
came to London and composed music for plays, including Middle- 
ton's The Witch and Shakespeare's The Tempest. 

3. THE SOURCES OF THE PLOT 

The source of The Tempest, like the date, cannot be definitely 
ascertained. But in both cases an investigation of the subject is 
amply repaid by the interesting and suggestive issues raised. Men- 
tion has been made above (p. ix) of Jourdan's pamphlet, A Discovery 
of the Barmudas} He relates that the crew of The Sea-Venture, 
weary with pumping, " were even resolved, without any hope of their 
lives, to shut up the hatches and to have committed themselves to 
the mercy of the sea. ... So that some of them having some good 
and comfortable waters in the ship, fetcht them, and drunke one to 
the other, taking their last leave one of the other," when Sir George 
Somers, in command of the expedition, at length descried land and 

1 Printed in Hakluyt's Voyages. (Ed. of 1812, v. 555 seq.) 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

encouraged them to continue at the pumps. They complied, though 
so weary "that for the most part they were fallen asleep in corners," 
and fortunately the ship "fell in betweene two rockes, where shee was 
fast lodged and locked, for further budging." One hundred and 
fifty men got ashore and, as Jourdan continues, "our feeding and 
preservation was beyond our hopes . . . most admirable. For the 
Ilands of the Barmudas . . . were never inhabited by any Christian 
or heathen people, but ever esteemed, and reputed, a most prodigious 
and inchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, stormes and foule 
weather. . . . Yet did we finde there the ayre . . . temperate and 
the Country . . . aboundantly fruitful," The quoted passages, if 
compared with i. 1. 68; i. 2. 232; v. 1. 230; ii. 2. 59; ii. 1. 35-52, 
show a similarity that can scarcely be accidental. Even more 
remarkable are some of the expressions used in Strachey's narrative 
of the same shipwreck. " Onely upon the thursday night Sir George 
Summers being upon the watch, had an apparition of a little round 
light, like a faint Starre, trembling, and streaming along with a 
sparkeling blaze, halfe the height upon the Maine Mast, and shoot- 
ing sometimes from Shroud to Shroud, tempting to settle as it were 
upon any of the foure Shrouds. . . . [We] threw over-boord much 
luggage . . . and staved many a Butt of Beere, Hogsheads of Oyle, 
Syder, Wine, and Vinegar." . . . On the island " some dangerous 
and secret discontents nourished amongst us, had like to have bin 
the parents of bloody issues and mischiefes." ^ Do we not seem 
to have here the suggestions for Ariel's apparition on the topmast, 
in the form of flame, for Stephano's escape upon a butt of sack which 
the sailors heaved o'erboard, and for the conspiracy of Antonio and 
Sebastian against Alonso ? ^ 

But it is a misconception, into which some critics have fallen, to 
think that Shakespeare actually lays the scene of the play in the 
Bermudas. On the contrary, Ariel (i. 2. 229) speaks of fetching 
dew from "the still-vex'd Bermoothes," though the allusion proves 
that the locality was prominently in Shakespeare's thoughts at the 
time. Hunter ingeniously seeks to identify Prospero's island with 
Lampedusa, off the north coast of Africa. His main argument is 
that the island's geographical position would meet all the exigencies 
of the story ; sailors from Algiers would conveniently and naturally 
land Sycorax on its shores ; Prospero, if committed to the sea off an 

1 Strachey, William. A True Repertory of the Wrack and Redemption of 
Sir Thomas Gates, printed in Purchaa his Pilgrimes, 1625 (iv. 1734 seg.). _ 

2 In any case no weight can be attached to Hunter's theory that the descrip- 
tion of the storm (i. 1) was borrowed from Canto 41 of Harrington's transla- 
tion of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. ^ 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

Italian coast, and tossed by winds and waves, would most likely drift 
to Lampedusa; and Alonso, sailing from Tunis and steering for 
Naples, would be caught in the storm raised by Prosper© and be 
landed there. Moreover, Lampedusa was noted as stormy, it had the 
reputation of being haunted, and it contained caves and a hermit's 
cell. Elze has made out an equally detailed case in favor of another 
Mediterranean islet, Pantalaria; and a third critic states dog- 
matically that it could only have been Corcyra which was intended. 
But they who thus seek to bring the enchanted island within the 
sphere of workaday geography imagine a vain thing : it is not to be 
found on charts or maps, but floats, "east of the sun, west of the 
moon," washed by 

"the foam 
Of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn." 

If geography is thus silent as to the whereabouts of the mysterious 
island, history enlightens us hardly more about the Italian poten- 
tates who drifted to its shores. But it is noteworthy that some of 
the names and incidents introduced into The Tempest occur in 
Thomas' Historye of Italye, 1561. We there read that Prospero 
Adorno was established as the Duke of Millain's lieutenant in Genoa, 
1477. "But he continued scarcely one yeare, tyl by meane of new 
practises, that he held with Ferdinando, kyng of Naples, he was had 
in suspicion to the Milanese." The attempt of his enemies in Milan 
to overthrow him roused the people in his behalf, "so that where he 
was before the dukes lieutenaunte, now he was made governoure 
absolutely of the commonwealth." An army sent from Milan was 
defeated, but, later on, the jealousy of a rival family in Genoa drove 
the Adorni brothers from the city. Then the commons rose again, 
"remembring how they were best in quiet, while they were sub- 
jected to the Duke of Millain . . . and then was Antony Adorno 
made governoure." Thomas further relates that there was a " kinge 
Alfonse in the Realme of Naples," whose son, Fernando, succeeded 
him in 1495. This Alonzo united the houses of Naples and Milan 
by marrying a princess of the latter city. In the play this incident is 
transferred to his son. 

But the sources hitherto spoken of can, in any case, have supplied 
the dramatist with no more than the framework of his plot ; they do 
not account for the central incidents of the story. Collins, the poet, 
told Warton that they were derived from a romance, Aurelio and 
Isabella, printed in Italian, Spanish, French, and EngUsh in 1588, 
but there is really no connection between this novel and the play. 
More fruitful was Tieck's discovery in 1817 of some remarkable 



INTRODUCTION xv 

points of resemblance between The Tempest and Die Schone Sidea 
(The Fair Sided), by Jacob Ayrer, a notary in Niirnberg. Ayrer, 
who rose from humble circumstances to an oflBcial position, died in 
1605, and in 1618 a folio edition of his dramas was published with 
the title. Opus Theatricum. 

Die Schone Sidea} one of the pieces in this volume, tells the story 
of a Duke Ludolff of Lithuania and his daughter Sidea. Ludolff is 
dethroned and expelled from his kingdom with Sidea, by Prince 
Leudegast of Wiltau. He takes refuge in a wood, and by his magic 
arts and the aid of a devil, Runcifal, gets into his possession Leude- 
gast's son, Engelbrecht, who has lost his way while hunting. Engel- 
brecht and his squire try to draw their swords to defend themselves, 
but find that their weapons are charmed from moving. Engel- 
brecht is then taken prisoner, and set to bear logs for Sidea, who at 
first treats him as harshly as does her father. But his noble birth and 
beauty win her heart, and they flee together. After sundry adven- 
tures, in which for a time they are separated, they reach Leudegast's 
court; the piece ends with their marriage and the reconciliation 
of the two princes. Intermingled with this main plot are episodes 
of low comedy which have no relation to the humorous scenes in 
The Tempest, and throughout the German and the English plays 
the names of persons and locaHties are entirely different. But this 
does not affect the striking parallelism between the central situations 
in the two dramas. In both there is a deposed ruler, expelled with 
his daughter as sole companion, and practicing in banishment the 
magic art; in both he gets into his power his enemy's son, whose 
sword he has enchanted, and whom he condemns to the task of log- 
bearing ; in both, the heroine and the captive prince fall in love, and 
the story closes with their marriage and the reconciliation of their 
parents. There can be no reasonable doubt either that Shakespeare 
and Ayrer borrowed from a common source, or that the Englishman 
had a version of the Niirnberg play before him. The latter is far 
from unlikely, for we know that English actors were in Niirnberg 
in 1604 and 1606, and that in June, 1613, the Elector of Branden- 
burg's servants and the English comedians acted several "beautiful 
comedies and tragedies," including a "Sedea," which can scarcely 
have been any other than Ayrer's play. When English companies 
were so frequently visiting Niirnberg, what is more likely than that 
they should bring home versions of some of Ayrer's favorite 

1 A full prose translation of Ayrer's play is given by Furness in his Vari- 
orum edition of The TempesU 326-341. A verse translation is given by Cohn, 
Shakespeare in Germany, 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

pieces, and that one of these should fall into Shakespeare's 
hands ? ^ 

Other works to which The Tempest is indebted in a minor degree, 
e.g. Florio's Montaigne, Golding's Ovid, and Eden's History of Tra- 
vayle, are referred to in the Notes. But there is another probable 
source, different in kind from those spoken of, which claims a word. 
Does The Tempest reflect symbolically the circumstances of Shake- 
speare's own career at the period of its composition ? To this ques- 
tion a strongly affirmative answer has been given by writers like 
Emile Montegut, who asserts ^ that it is " clearly the last of Shake- 
speare's dramas, and, under the form of an allegory, is the dramatic 
last will and testament of the great poet." The statement made in 
this unqualified form overshoots the mark, for The Tempest is very 
probably not Shakespeare's last complete play, and certainly not the 
last in which he had a share. Yet the world is assuredly right in its 
instinct that the voice of Prospero is, in peculiar measure, the voice 
of Shakespeare, and that when the great enchanter, at whose com- 
mand graves " have waked their sleepers," abjures his magic, the 
great dramatist is in some sort bidding a farewell, though scarcely 
formal and final, to the theater, where his "potent art" had re- 
summoned the mighty dead to new and imperishable life.* 

4. CRITICAL APPRECIATION 

The popularity enjoyed by The Tempest from the time of its pro- 
duction is the more remarkable because the play lacks some of the 
customary elements of dramatic interest. The plot is comparatively 
sHght, and, as we know from the first that Prospero has absolute 
control over the development of events, we are never stirred by the 
feeling of suspense that usually keeps the attention keenly alert dur- 
ing the progress of a play. Nor is The Tempest as rich as many 
dramas in studies of human character. The principal personages 
belong to the world of romance, and are either in part or entirely out- 
side the pale of ordinary experience, while the subordinate figures 

1 See, however, Charlotte Porter's study of Sources in the First Folio edition 
of The Tempest. She points out the inferiority of Ayrer's "clumsy production " 
to The Tempest, and advances a claim for a Spanish original, one of the Winter 
Nights of Antonio de Ealava, published in his own tongue at Madrid, 1609, 
— the story of a royal magician, dwelling with his innocent daughter in "a 
palace amid the deep sea." 

2 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1865. 

8 See further the passage in Dowden'a Shakespeare's Mind and Art, referred 
to in Appendix B. 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

have no strongly marked individuality and are little more than types. 
Nor does Shakespeare's humorous genius show to full advantage. 
The buffoonery of Stephano and Trinculo has a large element of mere 
horseplay, and even the earliest comedies scarcely contain passages 
of such wire-drawn, insipid repartee as make up the main part of 
Act ii, sc. 1.^ 

How is it then that, nevertheless. The Tempest ranks among the 
most fascinating, if not, strictly speaking, the greatest of Shake- 
speare's plays ? In the first place, as we have seen, it appeals more 
than any other play except Hamlet to that permanent instinct which 
craves to catch a glimpse of William Shakespeare's own personality 
through and behind his creations. Yet at the same time the drama 
transports us to regions strangely remote from the Globe Theatre^ 
or the Avon's banks. Throughout it we hear echoes oT^he won- 
derful adventures of the Elizabethan seamen, of the discoveries and 
*' plantations" wherewith the expansion of England began. As we 
read of the "mountaineers dew-lapp'd like bulls," and the "men 
whose heads stood in their breasts" ; or of the "putter-out of five 
for one" and the "holiday fool" eager to lay out ten doits to see a 
dead Indian or a painted monster, we call up a picture of Frobisher 
and Davis' voyages in search of the northwest passage, of Raleigh's 
exploration of Guiana, of Drake's journey around the world. We 
seem to stand on the quay of some old-world Cornish or Devonshire 
seaport, and to form a part of the open-mouthed crowd listening 
to the tales of bronzed mariners, and staring at the treasures that 
they have brought from Eldorados far away. No other work of 
Shakespeare reflects so vividly this enthralling aspect of Elizabethan 
life, and herein lies one of the main secrets of its charm. 

But The Tempest transports us not only to new found regions over 
seas, but to poetic wonderlands undiscoverable by the most adven- 
turous of voyagers. The distinction, however, in that age of geo- 
graphical marvels was less well defined than to-day, and Shakespeare, 
if questioned as to the whereabouts of the uninhabited island, might 
well have answered in the semi-serious vein of Spenser's Introduce 
tion to Book II of The Faerie Queene: 

" Who ever heard of th' Indian Peru ? 
Or who in venturous vessell measured 
The Amazons huge river, now found trew ? 
Or f ruitf ullest Virginia who did ever vew ? 

* This has, however, a partial dramatic justification. See introduction to 
ii. 1 in the Notes. 



c_ 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

Yet all these were, when no man did them know» 
Yet have from wisest ages hidden beene ; 
And later times thinges more unknowne shall show. 
Why then should witlesse man so much misweene. 
That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?" 

It is in an age when the borderlands of the natural and the super- 
natural thus overlap that the creative artist can most unerringly 
give to the latter the "form and pressure" of reality. Prospero's 
kingdom, the island, 

"Full of noises. 
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not," 

has as unquestionable an existence for us as if it were marked on 
every map of the southern seas. But it is characteristic of Shake- 
speare that he shows a wise economy in his use of supernatural effects, 
and, as a rule, restricts their display to a limited time and area. 
In A Midsummer Night's Dream the fairies are seen exercising their 
powers of enchantment only within the haunted wood, and for a 
single night. Similarly in The Tempest we witness the operation of 
Prospero's omnipotent art for the short space of three hours, and not 
beyond the confines of the mysterious isle. Hence in form the work 
has many of the characteristics of a classical play. It preserves 
the unities of time, and, in essentials, of place ; and Act i, sc. 2, as 
far as 1. 375, is practically equivalent to the classical prologue which 
enlightens the audience on preceding events necessary to the under- 
standing of the action. In its closely knit structure The Tempest 
forms the strongest contrast to The Winter's Tale and Pericles, 
which, with kindred incidents, exhibit the license of the Romantic 
type in its extreme form. 

Of the majority of the spirits thronging the island, airy shapes 
that are its original inhabitants, we get only passing glimpses, as in 
Prospero's final invocation : 

"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves. 
And ye that on the sands with printless foot 
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him 
When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that 
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make. 
Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime 
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice 
To hear the solemn curfew." 

In Ariel's songs we catch echoes of the melody of the "sweet 
sprites," as they foot it featly on the yellow sands, and of the "ding- 



INTRODUCTION xix 

dong" of the sea-nymphs as they ring the knell of the drowned 
mariner. Other spirits we see performing varied services at Pros- 
pero's command. They invite strangers to partake of a banquet 
which vanishes in thunder and lightning, they play the parts in a 
masque, or in the shape of dogs hunt misdoers till these roar with 
fright. 

Akin to these "meaner ministers," but of loftier degree in the 
elfin hierarchy, is Ariel. He had been imprisoned by Sycorax, the 
mother of Caliban, for twelve years in a cloven pine because he was 

"a spirit too delicate 
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands." 

From thia thraldom he has been set free by Prospero, and his grati- 
tude is shown by his willing service : 

"All hail, great master ! grave sir, hail ! I come 
To answer thy best pleasure ; be't to fly, 
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride 
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task 
Ariel and all his quality." 

As his name implies, he is a spirit of the air, though he has afl5nity, 
too, with the element of fire. "Like air and fire he can penetrate 
everywhere, treading the ooze of the salt deep, running upon the 
sharp wings of the north, doing business in the veins of earth when 
it is baked with frost. His natural speech is music or waves of air." ^ 
This music of Ariel's works strangely on all who hear it. As it 
creeps by Ferdinand on the waters, it allays their fury and his pas- 
sion, and draws him to Prospero's cell. It wakes Gonzalo at the 
critical moment, when Sebastian and Antonio are threatening the 
King's life ; it speaks through the elements to Alonso, and arouses 
remorse in his breast. But just because he is a spirit of the air, 
Ariel, though he is responsive to command, finds all human serv- 
ice galling, and begs for his hberty. The announcement that it is 
at hand makes him burst into a jubilant carol, and in the closing 
words of the play we see him dismissed to his natural haunts. 

At the opposite scale of being is Caliban, son of the devil and the 
witch, Sycorax. This "freckled whelp" not honored with a human 
shape is allied to the grosser natural forces, and is contemptuously 
hailed as "thou earth," "thou tortoise." In his outward appear- 
ance, probably owing to his long, finny arms, he must have had 

* Moulton, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, p. 257. 



XX INTRODUCTION 

some resemblance to a fish, which Trinculo at first sight takes him to 
be. Not without reason has he been claimed as an unconscious antic- 
ipation of the evolutionary "missing link," for he typifies humanity 
scarcely, if at all, raised above the brute stage. His name is prob- 
ably an anagram of Cannibal, and he represents the savage as seen in 
his naked deformity, not through a rose-colored Arcadian or Uto- 
pian mist. For a while this creature had been "lord of the island," 
or as he proudly puts it, his own king. But his dynasty had been 
overthrown when a strange succession of events brought a new ruler 
to the lonely domain. 

Prospero, Duke of Milan, had abandoned the reins of government 
to his brother, Antonio, and given himself up entirely to secret 
studies. Antonio, ambitious of the ducal title as well as the power, 
had, with the aid of the King of Naples, deposed Prospero, and set 
him adrift with his infant child, Miranda. Borne by wind and wave 
to the shores of the island, Prospero had begun hfe anew. His mis- 
fortunes had not been entirely unmerited, for in Shakespeare's 
eyes the primary duty of a ruler is to rule, not to retire into seclusion 
for religious or intellectual meditation. Thus it is that Henry VI and 
the Duke in Measure for Measure bring disaster upon their realms, 
and likewise is it with Prospero. But in his case " sweet are the uses 
of adversity," and he learns to the full the lessons of exile. Stripped 
of temporal sway, he still retains his precious books, whence he 
wrings the secrets of magic lore, and becomes an all-powerful en- 
chanter. And it must be remembered that to an Elizabethan 
audience this would have seemed far from impossible. Wizards, like 
Dr. Dee, with their symbolic staff and mantle, were familiar per- 
sonages at the time, and they figure frequently in the literature of the 
day. But either, like Spenser's Archimago, they use their powers 
for wicked ends, or, like Marlowe's Faustus, for purely personal 
gratification. The noble originality of Shakespeare's conception 
lies in the fact that Prospero turns his art to entirely beneficent pur- 
poses, and to the practical illustration of his own lofty words : 

"the rarer action is 
In virtue than in vengeance." 

So if we miss the aesthetic gratification which comes from the 
gradual resolution of suspense, we are compensated by the spectacle 
of an omnipotent force overruling the dramatic issues into corre- 
spondence with our conception of a righteous government of the 
world. 
Thus Prospero frees Ariel from imprisonment, but imposes a 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

term of service on him before he grants him full liberty. Thus, too, 
he seeks at first to educate Caliban, until the monster puts his 
lessons to evil use, and repays the enchanter's kindness by an attack 
on Miranda's honor. Thereupon follows his reduction to slavery, 
and though we realize the necessity of such treatment, Prospcro 
perhaps appeals to us least powerfully when he is showering abuse 
and threats on the creature of whom he confesses, 

"We cannot miss him : he does make our fire. 
Fetch in our wood and serves in offices 
That profit us." 

The degradation of the savage by the civilized man for his own pur- 
poses has been so frequent an episode in the history of colonization 
that we are apt to sympathize instinctively with the weaker side. 

But it is characteristic of Shakespeare's marvelous impartiality 
that, while he remorselessly unveils all that is gross and brutal in 
Caliban, he does not picture him as a mere Yahoo. His speech is 
not without a rude eloquence, and in his description of the island 
and its products he shows a vein of untutored imagination. More- 
over, the com-se of events provides him with a couple of foils, who 
prove that even barbarism surpasses a stunted caricature of civiliza- 
tion, and acquires a classical dignity through the comparison. The 
shipwrecked butler, Stephano, by the magic of his "celestial liquor," 
wins in a moment Caliban's complete allegiance, which Prospero's 
nobler gifts have failed to secure. Confident in the powers of this 
"brave god," Caliban enters into a conspiracy with him and his 
shipmate to overthrow Prospero's rule and to secure "freedom" for 
himself. However nefarious his design, he pm-sues it with a con- 
centration of purpose that puts to shame his worthless allies, who 
let themselves be lured from their object by the bait of some 
trumpery booty. And when the plot is foiled, Caliban has enough 
natural acuteness to recognize his own blunder. 

"What a thrice-double ass 
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god 
And worship this dull fool ! " 

His promise to be wise hereafter and to seek for grace, and Prospero's 
conditional offer of pardon if he trim the cave handsomely, give 
us hope that there is no need to despair of even the servant-monster's 
futiu-e. 

But Prospero has to deal with more highly pla9ed and dangerous 
offenders than Caliban and his confederates. Fate puts his former 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

enemies at his mercy, and gives them at the same time an oppor- 
tunity of showing whether they have repented of their misdeeds. 
Alonso, the King of Naples, agonized by the supposed loss of his son 
in the shipwreck, feels remorse stirring in his breast, and under the 
influence of Ariel's warnings bursts into fierce self-reproach. An- 
tonio, the chief mover in the original crime, proves himself hardened 
in sin by the lapse of years. Even as Duke of Milan he has not been 
satisfied. He has found it galling to pay tribute to the King of 
Naples as his overlord, and in the shipwreck he spies an opportunity 
of getting rid of his burden. While Alonso, overcome with grief 
and fatigue, is sunk in sleep, he plans a treacherous attempt upon 
his life, with the aim of setting Sebastian on the Neapolitan throne 
and freeing Milan from its pecuniary obligation. Prospero's 
vigilance frustrates the dastardly scheme, but the criminals are 
resolute to "take thoroughly" their next advantage at nightfall. 
Even Ariel's denunciation of their misdeeds, and his menace of 
"lingering perdition worse than any death" in default of repentance 
only rouse them to defiant rage. They dash with swords drawn 
after the vanishing "fiend," but their weapons avail them nothing, 
and the shipwrecked company are drawn by an irresistible influence 
to the enchanter's cell. 

Prospero cannot entirely conceal his inward tumult at this crisis. 
His nature, in spite of its stern schooling, has impassioned elements, 
and not only toward Caliban, but even toward Miranda and Ariel 
he betrays at times an intemperance of speech. Thus at the pros- 
pect of coming face to face with his enemies he is visibly agitated, 
and begs to be left alone. The conflict of emotions in his breast is 
sharp, but forgiveness triumphs over all lower feelings. " Prospero's 
forgiveness is solemn, judicial, and has in it something abstract and 
impersonal." ^ All sins are pardoned, yet a distinction is made 
among the sinners. Alonso, the least guilty and most repentant, is 
frankly welcomed ; Antonio is sternly rebuked and bidden to surren- 
der the fruit of his misdeeds. 

Prospero exacts the restoration of his dukedom, for so justice 
demands, but after his long exile he cares but little for the sweets of 
temporal sway, and in Milan his every third thought is to be his 
grave. It is less for his own sake than for his daughter's that he 
claims again the royalties to which she is rightful heir. For if it falls 
to Prospero to pardon the guilty, it is also his prerogative to reward 
the innocent, and never maiden merited more entirely all that a 
father's love could bestow than Miranda. 

1 Dowden, Shakespeare's Mind and Art. 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

Among the women drawn by Shakespeare she stands alone and 
apart. Mrs. Jameson has spoken of her as " the Eve of an enchanted 
Paradise," and the words are apt. For Miranda, reared among " the 
untrodden ways" of the tropical solitude, afar from the compamon- 
ship of her own sex, is wanting in the complexity of character bred 
by artificial surroundings, and is a more ethereal type of womanhood 
in its primal innocence than Milton's picture of the mother of man- 
kind. 

Even in infancy she was a "cherubin" that did preserve her father 
in his strange adventure, and in her island home she has been 
molded by the "silent sympathy" of Nature's loveliness into peer- 
less grace of body and mind. Cahban himself does homage to her 
beauty, and her exquisite tenderness and modesty shine through 
her every word and act. Her first utterance is one of pity for the 
shipwrecked crew : 

"O, I have suffered 
With those that I saw suffer." 

Prospero's story of their banishment does not draw from her laments 
for her lost greatness, but sorrow at the thought of the "trouble" 
she was then to him. But it is in her relations with Ferdinand that 
the full charm of her nature is revealed. So unlearned is she in 
worldly experience that when she first looks on him she takes him for 
a spirit, and even when Prospero assures her that "it eats and 
sleeps, and hath such senses as we have," she declares: 

"I might call him 
A thing divine, for nothing natural 
I ever saw so noble." 

Nor is Ferdinand unworthy of this tribute. Though but a man 
as other men are, he is a pattern hero of romance, a model of high 
bred gallantry. Between such a pair love at first sight is inevitable, 
but Prospero will not allow its com-se to run altogether smoothly. 
He brands the Prince as spy and traitor before Miranda, and 
confines him in the cell. Ferdinand bUthely accepts bonds and 
drudgery, and proves that his is the true loyalty that welcomes the 
meanest task when undergone for his lady's sake. Theirs is indeed 
the rivalry of "two most rare affections," for Miranda steals forth 
to help the Prince in his task of log-bearing. But he dechnes the 
proffered aid ; the truly royal nature thinks no toil a burden in the 
sacred cause of love : 

"Hear my soul speak : 
The very instant that I saw you, did 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

My heart fly to your service ; there resides. 
To make me slave to it ; and for your sake 
Am I this patient log-man." 

And it is in a like spirit that Miranda tremblingly lays her heart at 
her wooer's feet : 

"I am your wife, if you will marry me; 
If not, I'll die your maid : to be your fellow 
You may deny me ; but I'll be your servant. 
Whether you will or no." 

Thus throughout The Tempest, giving unity to the varied scenes, 
runs the underlying conception that true freedom consists in service, 
in obedience to necessary social and moral laws. Prospero himself 
may be looked upon as exemplifying Bacon's dictum that man com- 
mands nature by obeying her. Symbolically he represents the true 
freedom of the scientific spirit, which by laboriously mastering the 
secret laws of the universe is able to turn them to its own purposes — 
in this case purposes of the highest beneficence. Against Prospero's 
rule, based on intellectual and moral supremacy, Caliban revolts. 
His is the perverted conception of "freedom" which identifies it 
with unlimited license, and which kicks against all restraint. But 
life must be lived according to some law, and the being who rebels 
against the service of a Prospero is ready to do abject homage to a 
Stephano, in return for a few sips of liquor. Not different in spirit 
are the designs of Antonio, who, galled by his subordination to 
Prospero, and afterward to Alonso, seeks by treachery and violence 
to free himself from the ties that bind him as brother and vassal. 
There is another more playful variation of the theme in Gonzalo's 
sketch of his ideal commonwealth, where the attempt to abolish all 
obligations between man and man results in hopeless contradiction. 
But not after methods such as these is freedom truly to be found. 
Miranda and Ferdinand, with the instinct of perfectly healthy 
natures, seek it by a far different road — that of loyal whole-hearted 
service and self-surrender in the bonds of mutual love. Ariel, too, 
puts "all his quality" gladly at Prospero's command, but he is a 
spirit, not to be permanently bound by human ties, and finding full 
Kberty only in his own home of the elements. 

Implicit rather than directly emphasized, this idea of the paradoxi- 
cal nature of freedom underlies the play, and gives it deeper signif- 
icance than appears on the surface. And the thought finds its 
crowning illustration when Prospero, having accomplished his ap- 



INTRODUCTION XXT 

pointed work of punishment and pardon, bows himself again to 
human conditions, and of his own accord surrenders the omnipotence 
that he has valued only as the instrument of impersonal ends. 

But it is not its "criticism of life" that gives The Tempest so 
secure a place in our affections. Its most powerful appeal is to that 
primary human instinct which craves escape from the limiting 
conditions of the material universe and joys to roam in the "ampler 
aether," the "diviner air" of poetic wonderlands. In seasons when 
there is danger of the world being too much with us, it is an enfran- 
chisement of the spirit to breathe the atmosphere of the enchanted 
island, and to have glimpses as fresh and pure as those for which the 
modern poet yearned when he was fain to 

"Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea. 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 

Alonso King of Naples 

Sebastian . His brother 

Prospero The right Duke of Milan 

Antonio . . . His brother, the usurping Duke of Milan 

Ferdinand Son to the King of Naples 

GoNZALO An honest old Counsellor 

Adrian 1 ^ , 

^ >..... Lords 

Francisco J 

Caliban A savage and deformed Slave 

Trinculo A Jester 

Stephano A drunken Butler 

Master of a Ship 

Boatswain 

Mariners 

Miranda Daughter to Prospero 

Ariel An Airy Spirit 

Iris 

Ceres 

Juno 

Nymphs 

Reapers 



Presented by Spirits 



Other Spirits attending on Prospero 
SCENE — A ship at sea ; an island. 



The Tempest 

ACT I 

Scene I — On a ship at sea; a tempestuous noise of 
thunder and lightning heard 

Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain 

Mast. Boatswain ! 

Boats. Here, master : what cheer ? 

Mast. Good, speak to the mariners : fall to 't, 
yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, 
bestir. [Exit. 

Enter Mariners 

Boats. Heigh, my hearts ! cheerly, cheerly, my 
hearts ! yare, yare ! Take in the topsail. Tend 
to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy 
wind, if room enough ! 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, 
GoNZALO, and others 

Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where 's the lo 
master? Play the men. 

Boats. I pray now, keep below. 

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? 

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our 
labour : keep your cabins : you do assist the storm. 

Gon. Nay, good, be patient. 

Boats. When the sea is. Hence ! What cares 
1 



2 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: 
silence ! trouble us not. 

Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast 20 
aboard. 

Boats. None that I more love than myself. 
You are a counsellor; if you can command these 
elements to silence, and work the peace of the 
present, we will not hand a rope more; use your 
authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have 
lived so long, and make yourself ready in your 
cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. 
Cheerly, good hearts ! Out of our way, I say. 

[Exit 

Gon, I have great comfort from this fellow : so 
methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; 
his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, 
good Fate, to his hanging : make the rope of his 
destiny our cable, for our own doth little advan- 
tage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is 
miserable. [Exeunt, 

Re-enter Boatswain 

Boats, Down with the topmast! yare! lower, 
lower! Bring her to try with main-course. [A » 
cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they 
are louder than the weather or our office. 40 

Re-enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo 
Yet again ! what do you here ? Shall we give o'er 
and drown ? Have you a mind to sink ? 

Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blas- 
phemous, incharitable dog ! 

Boats. Work you then. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 3 

Ant. Hang, cur! hang, you insolent noise- 
maker ! We are less afraid to be drowned than 
thou art. 

Gon. I '11 warrant him for drowning; though 
the ship were no stronger than a nutshell. 50 

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two 
courses off to sea again ; lay her off. 

Enter Mariners wet 

Mariners. All lost ! to prayers, to prayers ! all 
lost! 

Boats. What, must our mouths be cold ? 
Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let 's 
assist them. 
For our case is as theirs. 

Seb. I 'm out of patience. 

Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by 
drunkards : 
This wide-chapp'd rascal — would thou mightst lie 

drowning 60 

The washing of ten tides ! 

Gon. He '11 be hang'd yet. 

Though every drop of water swear against it 
And gape at widest to glut him. 

[A confused noise within: "Mercy on us !" — 
"We split, we split!" — "Farewell, my wife and 

children!" — 
"Farewell, brother!" — "We split, we split, we 
split!"] 
Ant. Let 's all sink with the king. 
Seb. Let 's take leave of him. 

[Exeunt Ant. and Seb. 



4 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of 
sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown 
feze, any thing. The wills above be done ! but 7o ; 
I would fain die a dry death. [Exeunt 

Scene II — The island. Before Prospero's cell 
Enter Prospero and Miranda 

Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have 
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch. 
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek. 
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered 
With those that I saw suffer : a brave vessel. 
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, 
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock 
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd. 
Had I been any god of power, I would lO ] 

Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere 
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and 
The fraughting souls within her. 

Pros, Be collected : ' "^ 

No more amazement : tell your piteous heart 
There 's no harm done. 

Mir^ O, woe the day ! 

Pros, No harm. ' 

I have done nothing but in care of thee. 
Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who 
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing 
Of whence I am, nor that I am more better 
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, 20 

And thy no greater father. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 5 

Mir. More to know 

Did never meddle with my thoughts. 

Pros. 'T is time 

1 should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, 
And pluck my magic garment from me. So : 

[Lays down his mantle. 
Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes ; have 

comfort. 
The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd 
The very virtue of compassion in thee, 
I have with such provision in mine art 
So safely ordered that there is no soul — 
No, not so much perdition as an hair so 

Betid to any creature in the vessel 
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. 

Sit down ; 
For thou must now know farther. 

Mir. You have often 

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd 
And left me to a bootless inquisition. 
Concluding "Stay : not yet." 

Pros. The hour 's now come ; 

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear ; 
Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember 
A time before we came unto this cell ? 
I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not40 
Out three years old. 

Mir. Certainly, sir, I can. 

Pros. By what ? by any other house or person ? 
Of any thing the image tell me that 
Hath kept with thy remembrance. 

Mir. TJsfaroff , 



6 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

And rather like a dream than an assurance 
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not 
Four or five women once that tended me ? 

Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But 
how is it 
That this lives in thy mind ? What seest thou else 
In the dark backward and abysm of time ? so 

If thou remember'st aught ere thou camest here. 
How thou camest here thou mayst. 

Mir. But that I do not. 

Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year 
since. 
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and 
A prince of power. 

Mir. Sir, are not you my father ? 

Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and 
She said thou wast my daughter ; and thy father 
Was Duke of Milan ; and thou his only heir 
And princess no worse issued. 

Mir. O the heavens ! 

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? 60 
Or blessed was 't we did ? 

Pros. Both, both, my girl : 

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence. 
But blessedly holp hither. 

Mir. O, my heart bleeds 

To think o' the teen that I have turned you to. 
Which is from my remembrance ! Please you, 
farther. 

Pros. My brother and thy uncle, calFd An- 
tonio — 
I pray thee, mark me — that a brother should 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 7 

Be so perfidious ! — he whom next thyseK 

Of all the world I loved and to him put 

The manage of my state ; as at that time 70 

Through all the signories it was the first 

And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed 

In dignity, and for the liberal arts 

Without a parallel ; those being all my study. 

The government I cast upon my brother 

And to my state grew stranger, being transported 

And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle — 

Dost thou attend me ? 

Mir, Sir, most heedfuUy. 

Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits. 
How to deny them, who to advance and who so 

To trash for over-topping, new created 
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 

'em. 
Or else new form'd 'em ; having both the key 
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state 
To what tune pleased his ear ; that now he was 
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk. 
And suck'd my verdure out on 't. Thou attend'st 
not. 

Mir. O, good sir, I do. 

Pros. I pray thee, mark me. 

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated 
To closeness and the bettering of my mind 90 

With that which, but by being so retired, 
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother 
Awaked an evil nature; and my trust. 
Like a good parent, did beget of him 
A falsehood in its contrary as great 



8 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

As my trust was ; which had indeed no limit, 

A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded. 

Not only with what my revenue yielded, 

But what my power might else exact, like one 

Who having into truth, by telling of it, loo 

Made such a sinner of his memory. 

To credit his own lie, he did believe 

He was indeed the duke ; out o' the substitution. 

And executing the outward face of royalty. 

With all prerogative : hence his ambition growing — 

Dost thou hear ? 

Mir. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. 

Pros, To have no screen between this part he 
play'd 
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be 
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library 
Was dukedom large enough : of temporal royalties no 
He thinks me now incapable ; confederates — 
So dry he was for sway — wi' the King of Naples 
To give him annual tribute, do him homage. 
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend 
The dukedom yet unbow'd — alas, poor Milan ! — 
To most ignoble stooping. 

Mir. O the heavens ! 

Pros. Mark his condition and the event; then 
tell me 
If this might be a brother. 

Mir. I should sin 

To think but nobly of my grandmother : 
Good wombs have borne bad sons. 

Pros. Now the condition, 120 

This King of Naples, being an enemy 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 9 

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; 

Which was, that he, in Heu o* the premises 

Of homage and I know not how much tribute, 

Should presently extirpate me and mine 

Out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan 

With all the honours on my brother : whereon, 

A treacherous army levied, one midnight 

Fated to the purpose did Antonio open 

The gates of Milan, and, i' the dead of darkness, iso 

The ministers for the purpose hurried thence 

Me and thy crying self. 

Mir. Alack, for pity ! 

I, not remembering how I cried out then. 
Will cry it o'er again : it is a hint 
That wrings mine eyes to 't. 

Pros. Hear a little further 

And then I '11 bring thee to the present business 
Which now 's upon 's ; without the which this story 
Were most impertinent. 

Mir. Wherefore did they not 

That hour destroy us ? 

Pros. Well demanded, wench : 

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst 

not, 140 

So dear the love my people bore me, nor set 
A mark so bloody on the business, but 
With colours fairer painted their foul ends. 
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark. 
Bore us some leagues to sea ; where they prepared 
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd, 
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats 
Instinctively have quit it : there they hoist us, 



10 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh 

To the winds whose pity, sighing back again, iso 

Did us but loving wrong. 

Mir. Alack, what trouble 

Was I then to you ! 

Pros. O, a cherubin 

Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile. 
Infused with a fortitude from heaven. 
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt. 
Under my burthen groan'd ; which raised in me 
An undergoing stomach, to bear up 
Against what should ensue. 

Mir. How came we ashore ? 

Pros. By Providence divine. 
Some food we had and some fresh water that 160 

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, 
Out of his charity, who being then appointed 
Master of this design, did give us, with 
Rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries, 
Which since have steaded much ; so, of his gentle- 
ness. 
Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me 
From mine own library with volumes that 
I prize above my dukedom. 

Mir. Would I might 

But ever see that man ! 

Pros. Now I arise : [Resumes his mantle. 

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 170 

Here in this island we arrived ; and here 
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit 
Than other princesses can that have more time 
For vainer hours and tutors not so careful. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 11 

Mir, Heavens thank you for 't ! And now, I 
pray you, sir, 
For still 't is beating in my mind, your reason 
For raising this sea-storm ? 

Pros. Know thus far forth. 

By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, 
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies 
Brought to this shore ; and by my prescience ^^o 

I find my zenith doth depend upon 
A most auspicious star, whose influence 
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes 
Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions : 
Thou art inclined to sleep : 't is a good dulness. 
And give it way : I know thou canst not choose. 

[Miranda sleeps. 
Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. 
Approach, my Ariel, come. 

Enter Ariel 

Ari. All hail, great master ! grave sir, hail ! I 
come 
To answer thy best pleasure ; be 't to fly, i90 

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride 
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task 
Ariel and all his quality. 

Pros. Hast thou, spirit. 

Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee ? 

Ari. To every article. 
I boarded the king's ship ; now on the beak, 
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, 
I flamed amazement : sometime I 'Id divide. 
And burn in many places ; on the topmast. 



12 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, 200 
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the pre- 
cursors 
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary 
And sight-outrunning were not ; the fire and cracks 
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune 
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble. 
Yea, his dread trident shake. 

Pros. My brave spirit ! 

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 
Would not infect his reason ? 

Ari. Not a soul 

But felt a fever of the mad and play'd 
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 210 

Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel. 
Then all afire with me : the king's son, Ferdinand, 
With hair up-staring, — then like reeds, not hair, — 
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, "Hell is 

empty. 
And all the devils are here." 

Pros, Why, that 's my spirit ! 

But was not this nigh shore ? 

Ari. Close by, my master. 

Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe ? 

Ari. Not a hair perish'd ; 

On their sustaining garments not a blemish, 
But fresher than before : and, as thou badest me. 
In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. 220 
The king's son have I landed by himself ; 
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs 
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting. 
His arms in this sad knot. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 13 

Pros. Of the king's ship. 

The mariners, say how thou hast disposed 
And all the rest o' the fleet. 

Ari. Safely in harbour 

Is the king's ship ; in the deep nook, where once 
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew 
From the still- vex'd Bermoothes, there she 's hid : 
The mariners all under hatches stow'd ; 230 

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffered labour, 
I have left asleep : and for the rest o' the fleet 
Which I dispersed, they all have met again 
And are upon the Mediterranean flote, ' 
Bound sadly home for Naples, 
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd 
And his great person perish. 

Pros, Ariel, thy charge 

Exactly is perform'd : but there 's more work. 
What is the time o' the day ? 

Ari. Past the mid season. 

Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six 

and now 240 

Must by us both be spent most preciously. 

Ari. Is there more toil.'^ Since thou dost give 
me pains. 
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised. 
Which is not yet perform'd me. 

Pros. How now ? moody ? 

What is 't thou canst demand ? 

Ari. My liberty. 

Pros. Before the time be out ? no more ! 

Ari. I prithee, 

Hemember I have done thee worthy service ; 



14 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served 
Without OT^rudge or grumblings : thou didst promise 
To bate me .a full year. 

Pros. Dost thou forget 250 

From what a torment I did free thee ? 

Ari. No. 

Pros, Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread 
the ooze 
Of the salt deep. 

To run upon the sharp wind of the north. 
To do me business in the veins o' the earth 
When it is baked with frost. 

Ari, I do not, sir. 

Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing ! Hast thou 
forgot 
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy 
Was grown into a hoop ? hast thou forgot her ? 

Ari, No, sir. 

Pros, Thou hast. Where was she 

born ? speak ; tell me. 260 

Ari, Sir, in Argier. 

Pros, O, was she so? I must 

Once in a month recount what thou hast been. 
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax^ 
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible 
To enter human hearing, from Argier, 
Thou know'st, was banish'd : for one thing she did 
They would not take her life. Is not this true ? 

Ari. Ay, sir. 

Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought 
with child 
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, 270 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 15 

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant ; 

And, for thou wast a spirit too deUcate 

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands. 

Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, 

By help of her more potent ministers 

And in her most unmitigable rage. 

Into a cloven pine ; within which rift 

Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain 

A dozen years ; within which space she died 

And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy 

groans 280 

As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island — 
Save for the son that she did litter here, 
A freckled whelp hag-born — not honour'd with 
A human shape. 

Ari. Yes, Caliban her son. 

Pros. Dull thing, I say so ; he, that Caliban 
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st 
What torment I did find thee in ; thy groans 
Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts 
Of ever angry bears : it was a torment 
To lay upon the damn*d, which Sycorax 290 

Could not again undo : it was mine art. 
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape 
The pine and let thee out. 

Ari. I thank thee, master. 

Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak 
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. 

Ari. Pardon, master ; 

I will be correspondent to command 
And do my spiriting gently. 



16 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

Pros. Do so, and after two days 

I will discharge thee. 

jiri. That 's my noble master ! 

What shall I do ! say what ; what shall I do ? 300 

Pros. Go make thyseK like a nymph o' the sea : 
be subject 
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible 
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape 
And hither come in 't : go, hence with diligence ! 

[Exit Ariel, 
Awake, dear heart, awake ! thou hast slept well ; 
Awake ! 

Mir. The strangeness of your story put 
Heaviness in me. 

Pros. Shake it off. Come on ; 

We '11 visit Caliban my slave, who never 
Yields us kind answer. 

Mir. 'T is a villain, sir, 

I do not love to look on. 

Pros. But, as *t is, 310 

We cannot miss him : he does make our fire, 
Fetch in our wood and serves in offices 
That profit us. What, ho ! slave ! Caliban ! 
Thou earth, thou ! speak. 

Cal. [Within] There 's wood enough within. 

Pros. Come forth, I say ! there 's other business 
for thee : 
Come, thou tortoise ! when ? 

Re-enter Ariel like a water-nymph 

Fine apparition ! My quaint Ariel, 
Hark in thine ear. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 17 

Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. 

Pros. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil 
himself 
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth ! 320 

Enter Caliban 

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen 
Drop on you both ! a south-west blow on ye 
And blister you all o'er ! 

Pros, For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have 

cramps. 
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up ; urchins 
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work. 
All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd 
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 
Than bees that made 'em. 

Cal. I must eat my dinner. 330 

This island 's mine, by Sycorax my mother. 
Which thou takest from me. When thoucamest 

first, 
Thou strok'dst me and mad'st much of me, wouldst 

give me 
Water with berries in 't, and teach me how 
To name the bigger light, and how the less. 
That burn by day and night : and then I loved thee 
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle. 
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and 

fertile : 
Cursed be I that did so ! All the charms 
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ! 340 
For I am all the subjects that you have. 



18 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

Which first was mine own king : and here you sty 

me 
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me 
The rest o' the island. 

Pros. Thou most lying slave, 

Whom stripes may move, not kindness ! I have 

used thee, 
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee 
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate 
The honour of my child. 

Cal. O ho, O ho ! would 't had been done ! 
Thou didst prevent me ; I had peopled else 350 

This isle with Calibans. 

Pros. Abhorred slave. 

Which any print of goodness wilt not take. 
Being capable of all ill ! I pitied thee. 
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each 

hour 
One thing or other : when thou didst not, savage. 
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like 
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes 
With words that made them known. But thy vile 

race. 
Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good 

natures 
Could not abide to be with ; therefore wast thou seo 
Deservedly confined into this rock, 
Who hadst deserved more than a prison. 

Cal, You taught me language; and my profit 

on't 
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you 
For learning me your language ! "^ 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 19 

Pros. Hag-seed, hence ! 

Fetch us in fuel ; and be quick, thou'rt best. 
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, maUce ? 
If thou neglect'st or dost unwiUingly 
What I command, I '11 rack thee with old cramps. 
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar 370 

That beasts shall tremble at thy din. 

Cat. No, pray thee. 

[Aside] I must obey : his art is of such power, 
It would control my dam's god, Setebos, 
And make a vassal of him. 

Fros. So, slave ; hence ! [Exit Caliban, 

Re-enter Ariel, invisible, playing and singing; 
Ferdinand following 

Ariel's song 

Come unto these yellow sands, 

And then take hands : 
Courtsied when you have and kiss'd 

The wild waves whist, 
Foot it f eatly here and there ; 380 

And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. 
Burthen [dispersedly]. Hark, hark ! 

Bow-wow. 
The watch-dogs bark : 

Bow-wow. 
Ari. Hark, hark ! I hear 

The strain of strutting chanticleer 
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. 

Fer. Where should this music be ? i' the air or 
the earth ? 



20 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

It sounds no more : and, sure, it waits upon 
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank. 
Weeping again the king my father's wreck, 390 

This music crept by me upon the waters. 
Allaying both their fury and my passion 
With its sweet air : thence I have foUow'd it. 
Or it hath drawn me rather. But 't is gone. 
No, it begins again. 

Ariel sings 

Full fathom five thy father lies ; 

Of his bones are coral made ; 
Those are pearls that were his eyes : 

Nothing of him that doth fade 
But doth suffer a sea-change 400 

Into something rich and strange. 
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : 

Burthen. Ding-dong. 

Ari. Hark ! now I hear them, — Ding-dong, 

bell. 
Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd 
father. 
This is no mortal business, nor no sound 
That the earth owes. I hear it now above me. 

Pros. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance 
And say what thou seest yond. 

Mir. What is 't ? a spirit ? 

Lord, how it looks about ! Believe me, sir, 410 

It carries a brave form. But 't is a spirit. 

Pros. No, wench ; it eats and sleeps and hath 
such senses 
As we have, such. This gallant which thou seest 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 21 

Was in the wreck ; and, but he 's something stain'd 
With grief that 's beauty's canker, thou mightst 

call him 
A goodly person : he hath lost his fellows 
And strays about to find 'em. 

Mir. I might call him 

A thing divine, for nothing natural 
I ever saw so noble. 

Pros. [Aside] It goes on, I see. 

As my soul prompts it. Spirit, fine spirit! I *11 

free thee 420 

Within two days for this. 

Fer, Most sure, the goddess 

On whom these airs attend ! Vouchsafe my prayer 
May know if you remain upon this island ; 
And that you will some good instruction give 
How I may bear me here : my prime request. 
Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder ! 
If you be maid or no ? 

Mir. No wonder, sir ; 

But certainly a maid. 

Fer. My language ! heavens ! 

I am the best of them that speak this speech. 
Were I but where 't is spoken. 

Pros. How ? the best ? 430 

What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee ? 

Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders 
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me; 
And that he does I weep : myself am Naples, 
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld 
The king my father wreck'd. 

Mir, Alack, for mercy ! 



22 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords ; the Duke of 
Milan 
And his brave son being twain. 

Pros. §{Aside] The Duke of Milan 

And his more braver daughter could control thee. 
If now 't were fit to do 't. At the first sight 440 

They have changed eyes. Delicate Ariel, 
I '11 set thee free for this. [To Fer.] A word, good 

sir; 
I fear you have done yourself some wrong : a word. 

Mir. Why speaks my father so ungently ? This 
Is the third man that e'er I saw, the first 
That e'er I sigh'd for : pity move my father 
To be inclined my way ! 

Fer. O, if a virgin, 

And your affection not gone forth, I '11 make you 
The queen of Naples. 

Pros. Soft, sir ! one word more. 

[Aside] They are both in cither's powers ; but this 

swift business 450 

I must uneasy make, lest too light winning 
Make the prize light. [To Fer.] One word more; 

I charge thee 
That thou attend me : thou dost here usurp 
The name thou owest not ; and hast put thyself 
Upon this island as a spy, to win it 
From me, the lord on 't. 

Fer. No, as I am a man. 

Mir. There 's nothing ill can dwell in such a 
temple : 
If the ill spirit have so fair a house, 
Good things will strive to dwell with 't. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 23 

Pros. Follow me. 

Speak not you for him ; he 's a traitor. Come ; 460 
I '11 manacle thy neck and feet together : 
Sea- water shalt thou drink ; thy food shall be 
The fresh-brook mussels, wither'd roots and husks 
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. 

Fer, No ; 

I will resist such entertainment till 
Mine enemy has more power. 

[Draws, and is charmed from moving, 

Mir. O dear father, 

Make not too rash a trial of him, for 
He 's gentle and not fearful. 

Pros. What ? I say. 

My foot my tutor ! Put thy sword up, traitor ; 
Who makest a show but darest not strike, thy 

conscience 470 

Is so possess'd with guilt : come from thy ward, 
For I can here disarm thee with this stick 
And make thy weapon drop. 

Mir. Beseech you, father. 

Pros. Hence ! hang not on my garments. 

Mir. Sir, have pity ; 

I '11 be his surety. 

Pros. Silence ! one word more 

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What ! 
An advocate for an impostor ! hush ! 
Thou think'st there is no more such shapes 

as he, 
Having seen but him and Caliban : foolish wench ! 
To the most of men this is a Cahban 480 

And they to him are angels. 



24 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Mir. My affections 

Are then most humble ; I have no ambition 
To see a goodlier man. 

Pros. Come on ; obey : 

Thy nerves are in their infancy again 
And have no vigour in them. 

Fer. So they are ; 

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. 
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel. 
The wreck of all my friends, nor this man's threats^ 
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me. 
Might I but through my prison once a day 490 

Behold this maid : all corners else o' the earth 
Let liberty make use of ; space enough 
Have I in such a prison. 

Pros. [Aside] It works. [To Fer.] Come on. 

Thou hast done well, fine Ariel ! [To Fer.] Follow 

me. 
[ToAri.] Hark what thou else shalt do me. 

Mir. Be of comfort ; 

My father 's of a better nature, sir, 
Than he appears by speech : this is unwonted 
Which now came from him. 

Pros. Thou shalt be as free 

As mountain winds : but then exactly do 
All points of my command. 

Ari. To the syllable. 50o 

Pros. Come, follow. Speak not for him. 

[Exeunt 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 25 

ACT II 

r- &^ '" 
r^- ^/A^ Scene I — Another part of the island 

" '^ Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adeian, 
Francisco, and others 

Gon. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have 
cause, 
So have we all, of joy ; for our escape 
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe 
Is common; every day some sailor's wife. 
The masters of some merchant and the merchant 
Have just our theme of woe ; but for the miracle, 
I mean our preservation, few in millions 
Can speak like us : then wisely, good sir, weigh 
Our sorrow with our comfort. 

Alon. Prithee, peace. 

Seh. He receives comfort like cold porridge. lo 

Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so. 

Seh. Look, he 's winding up the watch of his 
wit ; by and by it will strike. 

Gon. Sir, — 

Seh. One : tell. 

Gon. When every grief is entertain'd that 's 
offer'd. 
Comes to the entertainer — 

Seh. A dollar. 

Gon. Dolour come to him, indeed; you have 
spoken truer than you purposed. 20 

Seh. You have taken it wiselier than I meant 
you should. 

Gon. Therefore, my lord, — 

Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue ! 






/^/ 



26 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Alon. I prithee, spare, 

Gon. Well, I have done : but yet, — 

Seb. He will be talking. 

Ant. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, 
first begins to crow ? 

Seb. The old cock. 30 

Ant. The cockerel. 

Seb. Done. The wager ? 

Ant. A laughter. 

Seh. A match ! 

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, — 

Seb. Ha, ha, ha ! So, you 're paid. 

Adr. Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible, — 

Seb. Yet,— 

Adr. Yet, — 

Ant. He could not miss 't. 40 

Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender and 

delicate temperance. 

Ant, Temperance was a delicate wench. 

Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly 
delivered. 

Adr. The air breathes upon us here most 
sweetly. 

Seb. As if it had lungs and rotten ones. 

Ant. Or as 't were perfumed by a fen. 

Gon. Here is everything advantageous to life. 

Ant. True ; save means to live. so 

Seb. Of that there 's none, or little. 

Gon. How lush and lusty the grass looks ! how 
green ! 

Ant. The ground indeed is tawny. 

Seb. With an eye of green in 't. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 27 

Ant. He misses not much. 

Seb. No ; he doth but mistake the truth totally. 

Gon. But the rarity of it is, — which is indeed 
almost beyond credit, — 

Seh. As many vouched rarities are. 60 

Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, 
drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their 
freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than 
stained with salt water. 

Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak, 
would it not say he lies ? 

Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. 

Gon. Methinks our garments are now as fresh 
as when we put them on first in Afric, at the mar- 
riage of the king's fair daughter Claribel to the 70 
King of Tunis. 

Seb. 'T was a sweet marriage, and we prosper 
well in our return. 

Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such 
a paragon to their queen. 

Gon. Not since widow Dido's time. 

Ant. Widow ! a pox o' that ! How came that 
widow in ? widow Dido ! 

Seb. What if he had said " widower ^Eneas" too ? 
Good Lord, how you take it ! so 

Adr. " Widow Dido " said you ? you make me 

study of that ; she was of Carthage, not of Tunis. 

Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. 

Adr. Carthage ? 

Gon. I assure you, Carthage. 

Seb. His word is more than the miraculous 
harp ; he hath raised the wall and houses too. 



28 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Ant What impossible matter will he make 
easy next ? 

Seb. I think he will carry this island home in 90 
his pocket and give it his son for an apple. 

Ant. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, 
bring forth more islands. 
[Ion. Ay. 

Ant. Why, in good time. 

Gon. Sir, we were talking that our garments 
seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the 
marriage of your daughter, who is now queen. 

Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there. 

Seb. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido. 100 

Ant. O, widow Dido ! ay, widow Dido. 

Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first 
day I wore it.^* I mean, in a sort. 

Ant. That sort was well fished for. 

Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's mar- 
riage ? 

Alon. You cram these words into mine ears 
against 

^The stomach of my sense. Would I had never 
Married my daughter there ! for, coming thence, 
My son is lost and, in my rate, she too. 
Who is so far from Italy removed 110 

I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir 
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish 
Hath made his meal on thee ? 

Fran. Sir, he may live : 

I saw him beat the surges under him. 
And ride upon their backs ; he trod the water. 
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 29 

The surge most swoln that met him ; his bold head 

'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar*d 

Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke 

To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd, 120 

As stooping to relieve him : I not doubt 

He came alive to land. 

Alon. No, no, he 's gone. 

Seb. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great 
loss. 
That would not bless our Europe with your daugh- 
ter, jv 
But rather lose her to an African ; 
Where she at least is banish'd from your eye. 
Who hath cause to wet the grief on 't. j 

Alon. Prithee, peace. 

Seb. You were kneel'd to and importuned other- 
wise 
By all of us, and the fair soul herself 
Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at 130 

Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost 

yom* son, 
I fear, for ever : Milan and Naples have 
Moe widows in them of this business' making 
Than we bring men to comfort them : 
The fault 's yom* own. 

Alon, So is the dear'st o' the loss. 

Gon. My lord Sebastian, 
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness 
And time to speak it in : you rub the sore. 
When you should bring the plaster. 

Seb. Very well. 

Ant. And most chirurgeonly. i40 



80 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Gon. It is foul weather in us all, good sir. 
When you are cloudy. 

Seb, Foul weather ? 

Ant Very foul. 

Gon. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, — 

Ant, He 'Id sow 't with nettle-seed. 

Seb, Or docks, or mallows. 

Gon. And were the king on 't, what would 
I do.? 

Seb. 'Scape being drunk for want of wine. 

Gon. T the commonwealth I would by con- 
traries 
Execute all things ; for no kind of traffic 
Would I admit ; no name of magistrate : 
Letters should not be known ; riches, poverty, 150 
And use of service, none : contract, succession. 
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none ; 
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil ; 
No occupation : all men idle, all ; 
And women too, but innocent and pure ; 
No sovereignty ; — 

Seb. Yet he would be king on 't. 

Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth for- 
gets the beginning. 

Gon. All things in common nature should pro- 
duce 
Without sweat or endeavour : treason, felony, leo 
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine. 
Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth. 
Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance. 
To feed my innocent people. 

Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects ? 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 31 

Ant None, man ; all idle. 

Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir. 
To excel the golden age. 

Seb. Save his majesty ! 

Ant. Long live Gonzalo ! 

Gon. And, — do you mark me, sir ? 

\^^/o/i. Prithee, no more : thou dost talk noth- 170 
ing to me. 

Gon. I do well believe your highness ; and did 
it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who 
are of such sensible and nimble lungs that they 
always use to laugh at nothing. 

Ant. *T was you we laughed at. 

Gon. Who in this kind of merry fooling am 
nothing to you : so you may continue and laugh 
at nothing still. 

Ant. What a blow was there given ! - 180 

Seh. An it had not fallen flat-long. 
^^^. You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you 
would lift the moon our of her sphere, if she would 
continue in it five weeks without changing. 

Enter Ariel, invisible, playing solemn music (/ 

Seb. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling. 
Ant. Nay, good my lord, be not angry. 
Gon.. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure 
my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, 
for I am very heavy .^^ 

Ant. Go sleep, and hear us. 190 

[All sleep except Alon.^ Seb., and Ant. 
Alon. What, all so soon asleep ! I wish mine 
eyes 



32 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts : I 

find 
They are inclined to do so. 

Seb. Please you, sir, 

/Do not omit the heavy offer of it : 
It seldom visits sorrow ; when it doth. 
It is a comforter. 

Ant. We two, my lord, 

Will guard your person while you take your rest. 
And watch your safety. 

Alon. Thank you. Wondrous heavy. 

[Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel. 

Seb. What a strange drowsiness possesses 
them ! 

Ant. It is the quality o' the climate. 

Seb. Why 200 

Doth it not then our eyelids sink ? I find not 
Myself disposed to sleep. 

Ant. Nor I ; my spirits are nimble. 

They fell together all, as by consent ; 
They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What 

might. 
Worthy Sebastian ? O, what might ? — No 

more : — 
And yet methinks I see it in thy face. 
What thou shouldst be : the occasion speaks thee, 

and 
My strong imagination sees a crown 
Dropping upon thy head. 

Seb. What, art thou waking ? 

Ant. Do you not hear me speak ? 

Seb. I do ; and surely 210 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 33 

It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st 

Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say? 

This is a strange repose, to be asleep 

With eyes wide open ; standing, speaking, moving. 

And yet so fast asleep. 

Ant. Noble Sebastian, 

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep — die, rather ; wink'st 
Whiles thou art waking. 

Seb. Thou dost snore distinctly ; 

There 's meaning in thy snores. 

■Ant. I am more serious than my custom : you 
Must be so too, if heed me ; which to do 220 

Trebles thee o'er. 

Seb. Well, I am standing water. 

Ant. I '11 teach you how to flow. 

Seb. Do so : to ebb 

Hereditary sloth instructs me. 

Ant. O, 

If you but knew how you the purpose cherish 
Whiles thus you mock it ! how, in stripping it, 
You more invest it ! Ebbing men, indeed. 
Most often do so near the bottom run 
By their own fear or sloth. 

Seb, Prithee, say on : 

The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim 
A matter from thee, and a birth indeed 230 

Which throes thee much to yield. 

Ant. Thus, sir : 

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this. 
Who shall be of as little memory 
When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuaded, — 
For he's a spirit of persuasion, only 



34 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Professes to persuade, — the king his son's alive, 
'T is as impossible that he 's undrown'd 
As he that sleeps here swims. 

Seb. I have no hope 

That he 's undrown'd. 

Ant. O, out of that "no hope" 

What great hope have you ! no hope that way is 240 
Another way so high a hope that even 
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond. 
But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with 

me 
That Ferdinand is drown'd ? 

Seh. He's gone. 

Ant. Then, tell me. 

Who 's the next heir of Naples ? 

Seb. Claribel. 

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis ; she that dwells 
Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from 

Naples 
Can have no note, unless the sun were post — 
The man i' the moon 's too slow — till new-born 

chins 
Be rough and razorable ; she that — from whom 250 
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again. 
And by that destiny to perform an act 
Whereof what 's past is prologue, what to come 
In yours and my discharge. 

Seb. What stuff is this ! how say you ? 

'T is true, my brother's daughter 's queen of Tunis ; 
So is she heir of Naples ; 'twixt which regions 
There is some space. 

Ant. A space whose every cubit 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 35 

Seems to cry out, "How shall that Claribel 
Measure us back to Naples ? Keep in Tunis, 
And let Sebastian wake." Say, this were death 260 
That now hath seized them; why, they were no 

worse 
Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples 
As well as he that sleeps ; lords that can prate 
As amply and unnecessarily 
As this Gonzalo ; I myseK could make 
A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore 
The mind that I do ! what a sleep were this 
For your advancement ! Do you understand me ? 

Seb. Methinks I do. 

Ant. And how does your content 

Tender your own good fortune ? 

Seb. I remember 270 

You did supplant your brother Prospero. 

Ant. True : 

And look how well my garments sit upon me ; 
Much feater than before : my brother's servants 
Were then my fellows ; now they are my men. 

Seb. But, for your conscience ? 

Ant. Ay, sir ; where lies that ? if 't were a kibe, 
'T would put me to my slipper : but I feel not 
This deity in my bosom : twenty consciences, 
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they 
And melt ere they molest ! Here lies your brother, 28O 
No better than the earth he lies upon, 
If he were that which now he 's like, that 's dead ; 
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it. 
Can lay to bed for ever ; whiles you, doing thus. 
To the perpetual wink for aye might put 



36 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who 
Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest. 
They 11 take suggestion as a cat laps milk ; 
They '11 tell the clock to any business that 
We say befits the hour. 

Seb. Thy case, dear friend, 290 

Shall be my precedent ; as thou got'st Milan, 
I '11 come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one 

stroke 
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest : 
And I the king shall love thee. 

Ant. Draw together ; 

And when I rear my hand, do you the like. 
To fall it on Gonzalo. 

Seb. O, but one word. 

[They talk apart. 

Re-enter Ariel, invisible 

Ari. My master through his art foresees the 
danger 
That you, his friend, are in ; and sends me forth — 
For else his project dies — to keep them living. 

[Sings in Gonzalo* s ear. 
While you here do snoring lie, 300 

Open-eyed conspiracy 

His time doth take. 
If of life you keep a care. 
Shake off slumber, and beware : 
Awake, awake ! 
Ant. Then let us both be sudden. 
Gon. Now, good angels 

Preserve the king. [They wake. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 37 

Alon, Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are 
you drawn ? 
Wherefore this ghastly looking ? 

Gon. What *s the matter ? 

Seb. Whiles we stood here securing your repose, 310 
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing 
Like bulls, or rather lions : did 't not wake you ? 
It struck mine ear most terribly. 

Alon. I heard nothing. 

Ant. O, 't was a din to fright a monster's ear. 
To make an earthquake ! sure, it was the roar 
Of a whole herd of lions. 

Alon. Heard you this, Gonzalo ? 

Gon. Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a hum- 
ming. 
And that a strange one too, which did awake me : 
I shaked you, sir, and cried : as mine eyes open'd, 
I saw their weapons drawn : there was a noise, 320 
That 's verily. 'T is best we stand upon our guard, 
Or that we quit this place : let 's draw our weapons. 

Alon. Lead off this ground; and let 's make 
further search 
For my poor son. 

Gon. Heavens keep him from these beasts ! 

For he is, sure, i' the island. 

Alon. Lead away. 

Ari. Prosper© my lord shall know what I have 
done : 
So, king, go safely on to seek thy son. [Exeunt. 



38 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Scene II — Another part of the island 

Enter Caliban vnth a burden of wood. A noise of 
thunder heard 

Cat. All the infections that the sun sucks up 
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him 
By inch-meal a disease ! His spirits hear me 
And yet I needs must curse. But they '11 nor 

pinch, 
Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' the mire. 
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark » 

Out of my way, unless he bid 'em ; but 
For every trifle are they set upon me ; 
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me 
And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which lo 
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount 
Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I 
All wound with adders who with cloven tongues 
Do hiss me into madness. 

Enter Trinculo 

Lo, now, lo ! 
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me 
For bringing wood in slowly. I '11 fall flat ; 
Perchance he will not mind me. 

Trin. Here 's neither bush nor shrub, to bear 
off any weather at all, and another storm brewing ; 
I hear it sing i' the wind : yond same black cloud, 20 
yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that 
would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it 
did before, I know not where to hide my head: 
yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 39 

What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or 
alive ? A fish : he smells like a fish ; a very ancient 
and fish-like smell; a kind of not of the newest 
Poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in England 
now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, 
not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of 30 
silver; there would this monster make a man; 
any strange beast there makes a man : when they 
will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they 
will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like 
a man ! and his fins like arms ! Warm, o' my 
troth ! I do now let loose my opinion ; hold it no 
longer : this is no fish, but an islander, that hath 
lately suffered by a thunderbolt. [Thunder.] 
Alas, the storm is come again ! my best way is to 
creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shel-40 
ter hereabout: misery acquaints a man with 
strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the 
dregs of the storm be past. 

Enter Stephano, singing : a bottle in his hand 
Ste. I shall no more to sea, to sea. 
Here shall I die ashore — 
This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's 
funeral : well, here 's my comfort. [Drinks. 

[Sings. 

The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I, 

The gunner and his mate 
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery 50 

But none of us cared for Kate ; 
For she had a tongue with a tang. 
Would cry to a sailor. Go hang ! » 



40 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch. 

Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang ! 
This is a scurvy tune too : but here 's my comfort. 

[Drinks. 

Cal. Do not torment me : Oh ! 
iSte. What 's the matter ? Have we devils here ? 
Do you put tricks upon 's with savages and meneo 
of Ind, ha? I have not *scaped drowning to be 
afeard now of your four legs; for it hath been 
said. As proper a man as ever went on four legs 
cannot make him give ground ; and it shall be said 
so again while Stephano breathes at nostrils. 

Cal. The spirits torments me ; Oh ! 

Ste. This is some monster of the isle with four 
legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where 
the devil should he learn our language ? I will give 
him some relief, if it be but for that. If I can 76 
recover him and keep him tame and get to Naples 
with him, he 's a present for any emperor that ever 
trod on neat's-leather. 

Cal. Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring 
my wood home faster. 

Ste. He's in his fit now and does not talk after 
the wisest. He shall taste of my bottle : if he have 
never drunk wine afore, it will go near to remove 
his fit. If I can recover him and keep him tame, 
I will not take too much for him ; he shall pay for so 
him that hath him, and that soundly. 

Cal. Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou 
wilt anon, I know it by thy trembling : now Prosper 
works upon thee. 

Ste. Come on your ways; open your mouth; 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 41 

here is that which will give language to you, cat: 
open your mouth; this will shake your shaking, 
I can tell you, and that soundly : you cannot tell 
who's your friend : open your chaps again. 

Trin. I should know that voice : it should be — 9o 
but he is drowned ; and these are devils : O defend 
me! 

Ste. Four legs and two voices: a most deli- 
cate monster ! His forward voice now is to speak 
well of his friend ; his backward voice is to utter 
foul speeches and to detract. If all the wine 
in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. 
Come. Amen! I will pour some in thy other 
mouth. 

Trin. Stephano! loo 

Ste. Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, 
mercy ! This is a devil, and no monster : I will 
leave him ; I have no long spoon. 

Trin. Stephano ! K thou beest Stephano, touch 
me and speak to me ; for I am Trinculo — be not 
afeard — thy good friend Trinculo. 

Ste. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth: I '11 
pull thee by the lesser legs : if any be Trinculo's 
legs, these are they. Thou art very Trinculo 
indeed ! How camest thou ? no 

Trin. I took him to be killed with a thunder- 
stroke. But art thou not drowned, Stephano.? 
I hope now thou art not drowned. Is the storm 
overblown ? I hid me under the dead moon-calf's 
gaberdine for fear of the storm. And art thou 
living, Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans 
'scaped ! 



42 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

Ste. Prithee, do not turn me about ; my stomach 
is not constant. 

Cal. [Aside] These be fine things, an if they be 

not sprites. 120 

That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor. 
I will kneel to him. 

Ste. How didst thou 'scape ? How camest thou 
hither.^ swear by this bottle how thou camest 
hither. I escaped upon a butt of sack which the 
sailors heaved o'erboard, by this bottle ! which I 
made of the bark of a tree with mine own hands since 
I was cast ashore. 

Cal. I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true 
subject; for the liquor is not earthly. 130 

Ste. Here ; swear then how thou escapedst. 

Trin. Swum ashore, man, like a duck : I can 
swim like a duck, I'll be sworn. 

Ste. Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst 
swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose. 

Trin. O Stephano, hast any more of this ? 

Ste. The whole butt, man : my cellar is in a 
rock by the sea-side where my wine is hid. How 
now, moon-calf ! how does thine ague ? 

Cal. Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven ? i40 

Ste. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee : I was 
the man i' the moon when time was. 

Cal. I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee : 
My mistress show'd me thee and thy dog and thy 
bush. 

Ste. Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I 
will furnish it anon with new contents : swear. 

Trin. By this good light, this is a very shallow 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 43 

monster ! I afeard of him ! A very weak monster ! 
The man i' the moon ! A most poor credulous 
monster ! Well drawn, monster, in good sooth ! i50 

Cal. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island ; 
And I will kiss thy foot : I prithee, be my god. 

Trin. By this light, a most perfidious and 
drunken monster ! when 's god 's asleep, he'll rob his 
bottle. 

Cal. I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy 
subject. 

Ste. Come on then ; down, and swear. 

Trin. I shall laugh myself to death at this 
puppy-headed monster. A most scurvy monster! 
I could find in my heart to beat him, — leo 

Ste. Come, kiss. 

Trin. But that the poor monster 's in drink : an 
abominable monster ! 

Cal. I '11 show thee the best springs ; I '11 pluck 
thee berries ; 
I '11 fish for thee and get thee wood enough. 
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve ! 
I '11 bear him no more sticks, but follow thee. 
Thou wondrous man. 

Trin. A most ridiculous monster, to make a 
wonder of a poor drunkard ! i70 

Cal. I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs 
grow; 
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts ; 
Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how 
To snare the nimble marmoset ; I '11 bring thee 
To clustering filberts and sometimes I '11 get 
thee 



44 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with 
me? 
Ste. I prithee now, lead the way without any- 
more talking. Trinculo, the king and all our com- 
pany else being drowned, we will inherit here: 
here ; bear my bottle : fellow Trinculo, we '11 fill iso 
him by and by again. 
Cal. [Sings drunkenly] 

Farewell, master ; farewell, farewell ! 
Trin. A howling monster ; a drunken monster ! 
CaL No more dams I '11 make for fish ; 
Nor fetch in firing 
At requiring ; 
Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish : 
'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban 
Has a new master : get a new man. 
Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom, 190 
hey-day, freedom ! 

Ste, brave monster ! Lead the way. 

[Exeunt, 



ACT III 



Scene I — Before Prospero's cell 

Enter Ferdinand, bearing a log 

Per. There be some sports are painful, and their 
labour 
Delight in them sets off ; some kinds of baseness 
Are nobly undergone and most poor matters 
Point to rich ends. This my mean task 
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 45 

The mistress which I serve quickens what 's dead 
And makes my labours pleasures : O, she is 
Ten times more gentle than her father 's crabb'd. 
And he 's composed of harshness. I must remove 
Some thousands of these logs and pile them up, lo 
Upon a sore injunction : my sweet mistress 
Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such base- 
ness 
Had never like executor. I forget : 
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my la- 
bours. 
Most busy lest, when I do it. 

Enter Miranda; and Peospero at a distance, unseen 

Mir. Alas, now, pray you, 

Work not so hard : I would the lightning had 
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile ! 
Pray, set it down and rest you : when this burns, 
'T will weep for having wearied you. My father 
Is hard at study ; pray now, rest yourself ; 20 

He 's safe for these three hom*s. 

Fer, O most dear mistress. 

The sun will set before I shall discharge 
What I must strive to do. 

Mir. If you '11 sit down, 

I '11 bear your logs the while : pray, give me that ; 
I '11 carry it to the pile. 

Fer. No, precious creature ; 

I had rather crack my sinews, break my back. 
Than you should such dishonour undergo. 
While I sit lazy by. 

Mir, It would become me 



14 



46 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

As well as it does you : and I should do it 

With much more ease ; for my good will is to it, 30 

And yours it is against. 

Pros. Poor worm, thou art infected ! 

This visitation shows it. 

Mir, You look wearily. 

Fer. No, noble mistress ; 't is fresh morning 
with me 
When you are by at night. I do beseech you — 
Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers — 
What is your name ? 

Mir, Miranda. — O my father, 

I have broke your hest to say so ! 

Fer. Admired Miranda ! 

Indeed the top of admiration : worth 
What 's dearest to the world ! Full many a lady 
I have eyed with best regard, and many a time 40 
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage 
Brought my too diligent ear : for several virtues 
Have I liked several women ; never any 
With so full soul, but some defect in her 
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed 
And put it to the foil : but you, O you. 
So perfect and so peerless, are created 
Of every creature's best ! 

Mir. I do not know 

One of my sex ; no woman's face remember. 
Save, from my glass, mine own ; nor have I seen so 
More that I may call men than you, good friend. 
And my dear father : how features are abroad, 
I am skilless of ; but, by my modesty, 
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 47 

Any companion in the world but you, 
Nor can imagination form a shape, 
Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle 
Something too wildly and my father's precepts 
I therein do forget. 

Fer. I am in my condition 

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king; 60 

I would, not so ! — and would no more endure 
This wooden slavery than to suffer 
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak : 
The very instant that I saw you, did 
My heart fly to your service ; there resides. 
To make me slave to it ; and for your sake 
Am I this patient log-man. 

Mir. Do you love me ? 

Fer, O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this 
sound 
And crown what I profess with kind event 
If I speak true ! if hollowly, invert 70 

What best is boded me to- mischief ! I 
Beyond all limit of what else i' the world 
Do love, prize, honour you. ^. 

Mir. I am a fool 

To weep at what I am glad of. 
ry Pros. Fair encounter 

Of two most rare affections ! Heavens rain grace 
On that which breeds between *em ! 

Fer. Wherefore weep you ? 

Mir. At mine unworthiness that dare not offer 
What I desire to give, and much less take 
What I shall die to want. But this is trifling ; 
And all the more it seeks to hide itself, so 



48 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning ! 

And prompt me, plain and holy innocence ! 

I am your wife, if you will marry me ; 

If not, I '11 die your maid : to be your fellow 

You, may deny me ; but I '11 be your servant, 

Whether you will or no. 

Fer. My mistress, dearest ; 

And I thus humble ever. 

Mir, My husband, then ? 

Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing 
As bondage e'er of freedom : here 's my hand. 

Mir. And mine, with my heart in 't : and now 

farewell 90 ! 

Till half an hour hence. 

Fer. A thousand thousand ! 

[Exeunt Fer. and Mir. severally. 

Pros. So glad of this as they I cannot be, t ,^. / / 
Who are surprised withal ; but my rejoicing 1[p. ^ jr 
At nothing can be more. I '11 to my book, \j' 

For yet ere supper-time must I perform 
Much business appertaining. \Exit, 

Scene n — Another part of the island 
Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo 

Ste. Tell not me; when the butt is out, we 
will drink water ; not a drop before : therefore 
bear up, and board 'em. Servant-monster, drink 
to me. 

Trin, Servant-monster ! the folly of this island ! 
They say there 's but five upon this isle : we are 
three of them ; if th' other two be brained like us, 
the state totters. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 49 

Ste, Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee : 
thy eyes are almost set in thy head. lo 

Trin. Where should they be set else? he 
were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in 
his tail. 

Ste. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue 
in sack: for my part, the sea cannot drown me; 
I swam, ere I could recover the shore, five and thirty 
leagues off and on. By this light, thou shalt be 
my lieutenant, monster, or my standard. 

Trin, Yourlieutenant, if you Ust; he 's no 
standard. 20 

Ste. We '11 not run. Monsieur Monster. 

Trin. Nor go neither ; but you '11 lie like dogs 
and yet say nothing neither. 

Ste. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou 
beest a good moon-calf. 

Cal. How does thy honour.'* Let me lick thy 
shoe. 
I '11 not serve him ; he is not valiant. 

Trin. Thou liest, most ignorant monster : I am in 
case to justle a constable. Why, thou deboshed fish, 
thou, was there ever man a coward that hath drunk 30 
so much sack as I to-day ? Wilt thou tell a mon- 
strous lie, being but half a fish and haK a monster ? 

Cal. Lo, how he mocks me ! wilt thou let him, 
my lord ? 

Trin, " Lord " quoth he ! That a monster should 
be such a natural ! 

Cal. Lo, lo, again! bite him to death, I 
prithee. 

Ste, Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head : 



50 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

if you prove a mutineer, — the next tree ! The poor 4o 
monster 's my subject and he shall not suffer in- 
dignity. 

Cal. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be 
pleased to hearken once again to the suit I made to 
thee ? 

Ste. Marry, will I : kneel and repeat it ; I will 
stand, and so shall Trinculo. 

Enter Ariel, invisible 

Cal. As I told thee before, I am subject to a 
tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated 
me of the island. so 

Ari. Thou liest. 

Cal. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou : 
I would my valiant master would destroy thee ! 
I do not lie. 

Ste. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in 's 
tale, by this hand, I will supplant some of your 
teeth. 

Trin. Why, I said nothing. 

Ste. Mum, then, and no more. Proceed. 

Cal. I say, by sorcery he got this isle ; eo 

From me he got it. If thy greatness will 
Revenge it on him, — for I know thou darest. 
But this thing dare not, — 

Ste. That 's most certain. 

Cal. Thou shalt be lord of it and I '11 serve thee. 

Ste. How now shall this be compassed ? Canst 
thou bring me to the party ? 

Cal. Yea, yea, my lord : I '11 yield him thee 
asleep. 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 51 

Where thou mayst knock a nail mto his head. 

Ari. Thou Hest ; thou canst not. 70 

Ccd: What a pied ninny 's this ! Thou scurvy 
patch ! 
I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows 
And take his bottle from him : when that 's gone 
He shall drink nought but brine ; for I '11 not show 

him 
Where the quick freshes are. 

Ste. Trmculo, run into no further danger: 
interrupt the monster one word further, and, by 
this hand, I '11 turn my mercy out o' doors and make 
a stock-fish of thee. 

Trin. Why, what did I.? I did nothing. I '11 so 
go farther off. 

Ste. Didst thou not say he lied ? 

Ari. Thou liest. 

Ste. Do I so ? take thou that. [Beats Trin.] 
As you like this, give me the lie another time. 

Trin. I did not give the lie. Out o' your wits 
and hearing too ? A pox o' your bottle ! this can 
sack and drinking do. A murrain on your monster, 
and the devil take your fingers ! 

Cal. Ha, ha, ha ! 90 

Ste. Now, forward with your tale. Prithee, 
stand farther off. 

Cal. Beat him enough : after a little time 
I '11 beat him too. 

Ste. Stand farther. Come, proceed. 

Cal. Why, as I told thee, 't is a custom with him, 
I' th' afternoon to sleep : there thou mayst brain 
him. 



52 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

Having first seized his books, or with a log 

Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake. 

Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember 

First to possess his books ; for without them loo 

He 's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not 

One spirit to command : they all do hate him 

As rootedly as I. Burn but his books. 

He has brave utensils, — for so he calls them, — 

Which, when he has a house, he '11 deck withal. 

And that most deeply to consider is 

The beauty of his daughter ; he himself 

Calls her a nonpareil : I never saw a woman. 

But only Sycorax my dam and she ; 

But she as far surpasseth Sycorax no 

As great'st does least. 

Ste. Is it so brave a lass ? 

Cat. Ay, lord. 

Ste. Monster, I will kill this man : his daughter 
and I will be king and queen, — save our graces ! — 
and Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost 
thou like the plot, Trinculo ? 

Trin. Excellent. 

Ste. Give me thy hand : I am sorry I beat thee ; 
but, while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy 120 
head. 

Cal. Within this half hour will he be asleep : 
Wilt thou destroy him then ? 

Ste. Ay, on mine honour. 

_^-24n. This will I tell my master. 

Cal. Thou makest me merry ; I am full of 
pleasure : 
Let us be jocund : will you troll the catch 



Scene Two] THE TEMPEST 53 

You taught me but while-ere ? 

Ste. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, 
any reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. 

[Sings, 
Flout 'em and scout 'em 130 

And scout 'em and flout 'em ; 
Thought is free. 

Cat. That 's not the tune. 

[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe, 

Ste. What is this same ? 

Trin. This is the tune of our catch, played by the 
picture of Nobody. 

Ste. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy 
likeness : if thou beest a devil, take 't as thou list. 

Trin. O, forgive me my sins ! 

Ste. He that dies pays all debts : I defy thee. i40 
Mercy upon us ! 

Cal. Art thou af card ? 

Ste. No, monster, not I. 

Cal. Be not afeard : the isle is full of noises. 
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt 

not. 
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments 
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices 
That, if I then had waked after long sleep. 
Will make me sleep again : and then, in dreaming. 
The clouds methought would open and show riches 150 
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, 
I cried to dream again. 

Ste. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, 
where I shall have my music for nothing. 

Cal. When Prosper© is destroyed. 



54 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

Ste. That shall be by and by : I remember the 
story. 

Trin. The sound is going away ; let *s follow it, 
and after do our work. 

Ste. Lead, monster; we '11 follow. I would Iieo 
could see this taborer ; he lays it on. 

Trin. Wilt come ? I '11 follow, Stephano. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene III — Another part of the island 
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, 
Francisco, and others 

Gon. By 'r lakin, I can go no further, sir ; 
My old bones ache : here 's a maze trod indeed 
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your 

patience, 
I needs must rest me. 

Alon. Old lord, I cannot blame thee. 

Who am myseK attach 'd with weariness. 
To the dulling of my spirits : sit down, and rest. 
Even here I will put off my hope and keep it 
No longer for my flatterer : he is drown'd 
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks 
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go. lo 

Ant. [Aside to Seb.] I am right glad that he 's 
so out of hope. 
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose 
That you resolved to effect. 

Seh. [Aside to Ant.] The next advantage 

Will we take throughly. 

Ant. [Aside to Seb.] Let it be to-night ; 
For, now they are oppressed with travel, they 



Scene Three] THE TEMPEST 55 

Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance 
As when they are fresh. 

Seb. [Aside to Ant.] I say, to-night : no more. 

[Solemn and strange music, 

Alon. What harmony is this ? My good friends, 

hark! 
Gon. Marvellous sweet music ! 

Enter Prospero above, invisible. Enter several strange 
Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it 
with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the 
King, etc. to eat, they depart 

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens ! What 
were these ? 20 

Seb. A living drollery. Now I will believe 
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia 
There is one tree, the phoenix* throne, one phoenix 
At this hour reigning there. 

Ant. I '11 believe both ; 

And what does else want credit, come to me. 
And I '11 be sworn 't is true : travellers ne'er did lie. 
Though fools at home condemn 'em. 

Gon. If in Naples 

I should report this now, would they believe me ? 
If I should say, I saw such islanders — 
For, certes, these are people of the island — 30 

Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note. 
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of 
Our human generation you shall find 
Many, nay, almost any. 

Pros. [Aside] Honest lord. 

Thou hast said well ; for some of you there present 
Are worse than devils. 



56 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

Alon. I cannot too much muse 

Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, express- 
ing, 
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind 
Of excellent dumb discourse. 
-Pros, [Aside] Praise in departing* 

Fran. They vanished strangely. 

Seb. No matter, since 40 

They have left their viands behind; for we have 

stomachs. 
Will 't please you taste of what is here ? 

Alon. Not I. 

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we 
were boys, 
Who would believe that there were mountaineers 
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging 

at 'em 
Wallets of flesh ? or that there were such men 
Whose heads stood in their breasts ? which now we 

find 
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us 
Good warrant of. 

Alon. I will stand to and feed, 

Although my last : no matter, since I feel so 

The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke. 
Stand to and do as we. 

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, like a harpy; claps 
his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint device y 
the banquet vanishes 

AH. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, 
That hath to instrument this lower world 



Scene Three] THE TEMPEST 57 

And what is in 't, the never-surfeited sea 
Hath caused to belch up you ; and on this island 
Where man doth not inhabit ; you 'mongst men 
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad ; 
And even with such-like valour men hang and 

drown 
Their proper selves. 

[Alon.f Seh.i &c. draw their swords. 
You fools ! I and my fellows eo 
Are ministers of Fate : the elements, 
Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well 
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs 
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish 
One dowle that 's in my plume : my fellow-ministers 
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt, 
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths 
And will not be uplifted. But remember — 
For that 's my business to you — that you three 
From Milan did supplant good Prospero ; 70 

Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it. 
Him and his innocent child ; for which foul deed 
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have 
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures. 
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, 
They have bereft ; and do pronounce by me 
Lingering perdition, worse than any death 
Can be at once, shall step by step attend 
You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you 

from — 
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls so 
Upon your heads — is nothing but heart-sorrow 
And a clear life ensuing. 



58 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the 
Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and 
carrying out the table 

Pros. Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou 
Perform'd, my Ariel ; a grace it had, devouring : 
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated 
In what thou hadst to say : so, with good life 
And observation strange, my meaner ministers 
Their several kinds have done. My high charms 

work 
And these mine enemies are all knit up 
In their distractions ; they now are in my power ; 90 
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit 
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd, 
And his and mine loved darling. [Exit above, 

Gon. V the name of something holy, sir, why 
stand you 
In this strange stare ? 

Alon. O, it is monstrous, monstrous ! 

Methought the billows spoke and told me of it ; 
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder. 
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced 
The name of Prosper : it did bass my trespass. 
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded, and 100 

I '11 seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded 
And with him there lie mudded. [Exit. 

Seb. But one fiend at a time, 

I '11 fight their legions o'er. 

Ant. I '11 be thy second. 

[Exeunt Seb. and Ant. 

Gon. All three of them are desperate: their 
great guilt, 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 59 

Like poison given to work a great time after, 
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you 
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly 
And hinder them from what this ecstasy 
May now provoke them to. 

Adr, Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt, 



ACT IV 

Scene I — Before Prospero's cell 
Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda 

Pros. If I have too austerely punish'd you. 
Your compensation makes amends, for I 
Have given you here a third of mine own life. 
Or that for which I live ; who once again 
I tender to thy hand : all thy vexations 
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou 
Hast strangely stood the test : here, afore Heaven, 
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand, 
Do not smile at me that I boast her off. 
For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise lo 

And make it halt behind her. 

Fer. I do believe it 

Against an oracle. 

Pros. Then, as my gift and thine own acquisi- 
tion 
Worthily purchased, take my daughter : but 
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before 
All sanctimonious ceremonies may 
With full and holy rite be minister'd. 



60 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall 
To make this contract grow ; but barren hate. 
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew 20 ; 

The union of your bed with weeds so loathly 
That you shall hate it both : therefore take heed. 
As Hymen's lamps shall light you. 

Fer. As I hope 

For quiet days, fair issue and long life, 
With such love as 't is now, the murkiest den. 
The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion 
Our worser genius can, shall never melt 
Mine honour into lust, to take away 
The edge of that day's celebration 
When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd, 30 1 
Or Night kept chain'd below. 

Pros, Fairly spoke. 

Sit then and talk with her ; she is thine own. 
What, Ariel ! my industrious servant, Ariel ! 

Enter Ariel 

Ari. What would my potent master .? here I am. 

Pros. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last 
service 
Did worthily perform ; and I must use you 
In such another trick. Go bring the rabble, 
O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place : 
Incite them to quick motion ; for I must 
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple 40 ; 

Some vanity of mine art ; it is my promise. 
And they expect it from me. 

Ari. Presently ? 

Pros. Ay, with a twink. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 61 

Ari. Before you can say "come" and "go," 
And breathe twice and cry "so, so," 
Each one, trippmg on his toe. 
Will be here with mop and mow. 
Do you love me, master ? no ? 
Pros. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not ap- 
proach 
Till thou dost hear me call. 

Ari, Well, I conceive. [Exit. 50 

Pros. Look thou be true ; do not give dalliance 
Too much the rein : the strongest oaths are straw 
To the fire i' the blood : be more abstemious. 
Or else, good night your vow ! 

Fer. I warrant you, sir ; 

The white cold virgin snow upon my heart 
Abates the ardour of my liver. 

Pros. Well. 

Now come, my Ariel ! bring a corollary. 
Rather than want a spirit : appear, and pertly ! 
No tongue ! all eyes ! be silent. [Soft music. 

Enter Iris 

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 60 
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and pease ; 
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep. 
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep ; 
Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims. 
Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, 
To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy 

broom-groves, 
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves. 
Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-clipt vineyard ; 



62 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard, 
Where thou thyself dost air; — the queen o' the 

sky, 70 

Whose watery arch and messenger am I, 
Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace 
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, 
To come and sport : her peacocks fly amain : 
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain. 

Enter Ceres 

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er 
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter ; 
Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers 
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers. 
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown so 
My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down. 
Rich scarf to my proud earth ; why hath thy queen 
Summoned me hither, to this short-grass'd green? 

Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate ; 
And some donation freely to estate 
On the blest lovers. 

Cer, Tell me, heavenly bow. 

If Venus or her son, as thou dost know. 
Do now attend the queen ? Since they did plot 
The means that dusky Dis my daughter got, 
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company 90 

I have forsworn. 

Iris. Of her society 

Be not afraid : I met her deity 
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos and her son 
Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have 
done 



Scene One! THE TEMPEST 63 

Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, 
Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid 
Till Hymen's torch be lighted : but in vain ; 
Mars's hot minion is return'd again ; 
Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, 
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with 

sparrows loo 

And be a boy right out. 

Cer. High'st queen of state, 

Great Juno, comes ; I know her by her gait. 

Enter Juno 
Juno. How does my bounteous sister ? Go with 
me 
To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be 
And honoured in their issue. [They sing, 

Juno. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing. 
Long continuance, and increasing. 
Hourly joys be still upon you ! 
Juno sings her blessings on you. 

Cer. Earth's increase, foison plenty, no 

Barns and garners never empty. 
Vines with clustering bunches growing. 
Plants with goodly burthen bowing ; 

Spring come to you at the farthest 
In the very end of harvest ! 
Scarcity and want shall shun you ; 
Ceres' blessing so is on you. 

Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and 
Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold 
To think these spirits ? 



64 THE TEMPEST [Act Foub 

Pros. Spirits, which by mine art 120 

I have from their confines call'd to enact 
My present fancies. 

Fer. Let me live here ever ; 

So rare a wonder'd father and a wise 
Makes this place Paradise. 

[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on 
employment. 

Pros. Sweet, now, silence ! 

Juno and Ceres whisper seriously ; 
There 's something else to do : hush, and be mute. 
Or else our spell is marr'd. 

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wind- 
ring brooks, 
With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks. 
Leave your crisp channels and on this green land 130 
Answer your summons ; Juno does command : 
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate 
A contract of true love ; be not too late. 

Enter certain Nymphs 
You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary. 
Come hither from the furrow and be merry : 
Make holiday ; your rye-straw hats put on 
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one 
In country footing. 

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited : they join vnih the 

Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof 

Peospero starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a 

strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish 

Pros. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy 

Of the beast Caliban and his confederates i4o 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 65 

Against my life : the minute of their plot 
Is almost come. [To the Spirits] Well done ! avoid ; 
no more ! 

Fer. This is strange : your father 's in some pas- 
sion 
That works him strongly. 

Mir. Never till this day 

Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd. 

Pros. You do look, my son, in a moved sort. 
As if you were dismay'd : be cheerful, sir. 
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits and 
Are melted into air, into thin air : iso 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces. 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself. 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. 
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd ; 
Bear with my weakness ; my old brain is troubled : 
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity : 160 

If you be pleased, retire into my cell 
And there repose : a turn or two I '11 walk. 
To still my beating mind. 

Fer. 



^ . , We wish your peace. [Exeunt. 

Pros. Come with a thought. I thank thee, 
Ariel: come. 



66 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

Enter Ariel 

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What 's thy 
pleasure ? 

Pros. Spirit, 

We must prepare to meet with Caliban. 

Ari. Ay, my commander: when I presented 
Ceres, 
I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd 
Lest I might anger thee. 

Pros. Say again, where didst thou leave these 
varlets ? i70 

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with 
drinking ; 
So full of valour that they smote the air 
For breathing in their faces ; beat the ground 
For kissing of their feet ; yet always bending 
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor. 
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their 

ears, 
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses 
As they smelt music : so I charm'd their ears 
That calf -like they my lowing foUow'd through 
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and 

thorns, 180 

Which entered their frail shins : at last I left them 
I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell. 
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake 
O'erstunk their feet. 

Pros. This was well done, my bird. 

Thy shape invisible retain thou still : 
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither, 
For stale to catch these thieves. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 67 

Ari. I go, I go. [Exit 

Pros. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature 
Nurture can never stick ; on whom my pains, 
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost ; 190 

And as with age his body uglier grows. 
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all, 
Even to roaring. 

Re-enter Ariel, loaden with glistering apparel^ &c. 
Come, hang them on this line. 

Prospero and Ariel remain, invisible. Enter Caliban, 
Stephano, and Trinculo, all wet 

Cat. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole 
may not 
Hear a foot fall : we now are near his cell. 

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a 
harmless fairy, has done little better than played 
the Jack with us. Do you hear, monster? If 1 200 
should take a displeasure against you, look you, — 

Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster. 

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still. 
Be patient, for the prize I '11 bring thee to 
Shall hoodwink this mischance : therefore speak 

softly. 
All 's hush'd as midnight yet. 

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool, — 

Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonour 
in that, monster, but an infinite loss. 210 

Trin. That 's more to me than my wetting : yet 
this is your harmless fairy, monster. 

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er 
^rs for my labour. 



68 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

Cat. Prithee, my king, be quiet. See'st thou here, 
This is the mouth o' the cell : no noise, and enter. 
Do that good mischief which may make this island 
Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban, 
For aye thy foot-licker. 

Ste. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have 220 
bloody thoughts. 

Trin. O king Stephano ! O peer ! O worthy 
Stephano ! look what a wardrobe here is for thee ! 

Cal. Let it alone, thou fool ; it is but trash. 

Trin. O, ho, monster ! we know what belongs to 
a frippery. O king Stephano ! 

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo ; by this hand, 
I '11 have that gown. 

Trin. Thy grace shall have it. 

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool ! what do you 

mean 230 

To dote thus on such luggage ? Let 's alone 
And do the murder first : if he awake. 
From toe to crown he '11 fill our skins with pinches. 
Make us strange stuff. 

Ste. Be you quiet, monster. Mistress line, is 
not this my jerkin.? Now is the jerkin under the 
line : now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair and 
prove a bald jerkin. 

Trin. Do, do : we steal by line and level, aii 't 
like your grace. 240 

Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a gar- 
ment for 't : wit shall not go unrewarded while I 
am king of this country. "Steal by line and level" 
is an excellent pass of pate ; there 's another gar- 
ment for 't. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 69 

Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your 
fingers, and away with the rest. 

Cat. I will have none on 't : we shall lose our 
time, 
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes 
With foreheads villanous low. 250 

Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers : help to bear 
this away where my hogshead of wine is, or I '11 turn 
you out of my kingdom : go to, carry this. 

Trin. And this. 

Ste. Ay, and this. 

A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of 
dogs and hounds, and hunt them about, Prospero and 
Ariel setting them on 

Pros. Hey, Mountain, hey ! 

Ari. Silver ! there it goes. Silver ! 

Pros. Fury, Fury ! there. Tyrant, there ! hark ! 
hark ! [Cal., Ste.y and Trin. are driven out. 
Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints 
With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews 26O 
With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make 

them 
Than pard or cat o' mountain. 

Ari. Hark, they roar ! 

Pros. Let them be hunted soundly. At this 
hour 
Lie at my mercy all mine enemies : 
Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou 
Shalt have the air at freedom : for a little 
Follow, and do me service. [Exeunt. 



70 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

ACT V 

Scene I — Befwe Prospero's cell 
Enter Prospero in his magic robes, and Ariel 

Pros, Now does my project gather to a head : 
My charms crack not ; my spirits obey ; and time 
Goes upright with his carriage. How 's the day ? 

Ari. On the sixth hour ; at which time, my lord. 
You said our work should cease. 

Pros. I did say so, 

When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit, 
How fares the king and 's followers ^ 

Ari. Confined together 

In the same fashion as you gave in charge. 
Just as you left them ; all prisoners, sir. 
In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell ; lo 
They cannot budge till your release. The. king. 
His brother and yours, abide all three distracted. 
And the remainder mourning over them. 
Brimful of sorrow and dismay ; but chiefly 
Him that you term'd sir, " The good old lord, Gon- 

zalo " ; 
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops 
From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly 

works 'em 
That if you now beheld them, your affections 
Would become tender. 

Pros. Dost thou think so, spirit ? 

Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human. 

Pros. And mine shall. 20 

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 71 

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, 
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply 
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art ? 
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the 

quick. 
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury 
Do I take part : the rarer action is 
In virtue than in vengeance : they being penitent. 
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend 
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel : so 

My charms I '11 break, theu* senses I '11 restore. 
And they shall be themselves. 

Ari. I '11 fetch them, sir. [Exit 

Pros. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes 
and groves. 
And ye that on the sands with printless foot 
Do chase the ebbing Neptime and do fly him 
When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that 
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make. 
Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime 
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice 
To hear the solemn curfew ; by whose aid, 40 

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd 
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds. 
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault 
Set roaring war : to the dread rattling thunder 
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak 
With his own bolt ; the strong-based promontory 
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up 
The pine and cedar : graves at my command 
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth 
By my so potent art. But this rough magic so 



72 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

I here abjure, and, when I have required 

Some heavenly music, which even now I do. 

To work mine end upon their senses that 

This airy charm is for, I '11 break my staff. 

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth. 

And deeper than did ever plummet sound 

I '11 drown my book. [Solemn music. 

Re-enter Ariel before: then Alonso, mth a frantic ges- 
ture, attended by Gonzalo: Sebastian and An- 
tonio in like manner^ attended by Adrian and 
Francisco : they all enter the circle which Prosper© 
had made, and there stand charmed; which Prospero 
observing, speaks 

A solemn air and the best comforter 
To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains. 
Now useless, boil'd within thy skull ! There stand, eo 
For you are spell-stopp'd. 
Holy Gonzalo, honourable man. 
Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine. 
Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, 
And as the morning steals upon the night. 
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses 
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle 
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo, 
My true preserver, and a loyal sir 
To him thou foUow'st ! I will pay thy graces 70 

Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly 
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter : 
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. 
Thou art pinch'd for 't now* Sebastian. Flesh and 
blood. 



L. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 73 

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, 

Expeird remorse and nature ; who, with Sebastian, 

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong. 

Would here have kill'd your king ; I do forgive thee. 

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding/ 

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide ^ &u 

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore 

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them 

That yet looks on me, or would know me : Ariel, 

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell : 

I will disease me, and myself present 

As I was sometime Milan : quickly, spirit ; 

Thou shalt ere long be free. 

Ariel sings and helps to attire him 

Where the bee sucks, there suck I : 

In a cowslip's bell I lie ; 

There I couch when owls do cry. 90 

On the bat's back I do fly 

After summer merrily. 
Merrily, merrily shall I live now 
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 

Pros, Why, that 's my dainty Ariel! I shall 
miss thee ; 
But yet thou shalt have freedom : so, so, so. 
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art : 
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep 
Under the hatches ; the master and the boatswain 
Being awake, enforce them to this place, 100 

And presently, I prithee. 

An. I drink the air before me, and return 
Or ere your pulse twice beat. [Exit 



\ 



74 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder and amaze- 
ment 
Inhabits here : some heavenly power guide us 
Out of this fearful country ! 

Pros. Behold, sir king. 

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero : 
For more assurance that a living prince 
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body ; 
And to thee and thy company I bid no 

A hearty welcome. 

Alon. Whether thou be'st he or no. 

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me. 
As late I have been, I not know : thy pulse 
Beats as of flesh and blood ; and, since I saw thee. 
The affliction of my mind amends, with which, 
I fear, a madness held me ; this must crave. 
An if this be at all, a most strange story. 
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat 
Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should 

Prospero 
Be living and be here ? 

Pros, First, noble friend, 120 

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot 
Be measured or confined. 

Gon. Whether this be 

Or be not, I '11 not swear. 

Pros. You do yet taste 

Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you 
Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all ! 
[Aside to Seh. and Ant] But you, my brace of 

lords, were I so minded, 
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 75 

And justify you traitors : at this time 
I will tell no tales. 
\^ Seb. [Aside] The devil speaks in him. 

Pros. No. 

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother 130 
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive 
Thy rankest fault ; all of them ; and require 
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know. 
Thou must restore. 

Alon. If thou be'st Prospero, 

Give us particulars of thy preservation ; 
How thou hast met us here, who three hours 

since 
Were wreck'd upon this shore ; where I have lost — 
How sharp the point of this remembrance is ! — 
My dear son Ferdinand. 

Pros. I am woe for % sir. 

Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience i4o 

Says it is past her cure. 

Pros. I rather think 

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace 
For the like loss I have her sovereign aid 
And rest myself content. 

Alon, You the like loss ! 

Pros. As great to me as late ; and, supportable 
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker 
Than you may call to comfort you, for I 
Have lost my daughter. 

Alon. A daughter ? 

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples, 
The king and queen there ! that they were, I wish 150 
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed 



76 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

Where my son lies. When did you lose your 

daughter ? 
Pros. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords 
At this encounter do so much admire 
That they devour their reason and scarce think 
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words 
Are natural breath : but howsoe'er you have 
Been justled from your senses, know for certain 
That I am Prospero and that very duke 
Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most 

strangely 160 

Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was 

landed, 
To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this ; 
For 't is a chronicle of day by day, 
Not a relation for a breakfast nor 
Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir ; 
This cell 's my court : here have I few attendants 
And subjects none abroad : pray you, look in. 
My dukedom since you have given me again, 
I will requite you with as good a thing ; 
At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye 170 

As much as me my dukedom. 

Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda 
playing at chess 

Mir, Sweet lord, you play me false. 

Per. No, my dear'st love, 

I would not for the world. 

Mir, Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should 
wrangle. 
And I would call it fair play. 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 77 

Alon. If this prove 

A vision of the Island, one dear son 
Shall I twice lose. 

Seb, A most high miracle ! 

Fer, Though the seas threaten, they are merci- 
ful; 
I have cursed them without cause. [Kneels. 

Alon. Now all the blessings 

Of a glad father compass thee about ! 180 

Arise, and say how thou camest here. 

Mir. O, wonder ! 

How many goodly creatures are there here ! 
How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world. 
That has such people in 't ! 

Pros. 'T is new to thee. 

Alon. What is this maid with whom thou wast 
at play ? 
Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours : 
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us, 
And brought us thus together ? 

Fer. Sir, she is mortal ; 

But by immortal Providence she 's mine : 
I chose her when I could not ask my father 190 

For his advice, nor thought I had one. She 
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan, 
Of whom so often I have heard renown. 
But never saw before ; of whom I have 
Received a second life ; and second father 
This lady makes him to me. 

Alon. I am hers : 

But, O, how oddly will it sound that I 
Must ask my child forgiveness ! 



78 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

Tros. There, sir, stop : 

Let us not burthen our remembrance with 
A heaviness that 's gone. 

Gon. I have inly wept, 200 

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you 

gods. 
And on this couple drop a blessed crown 
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way 
Which brought us hither. 

Alon. I say. Amen, Gonzalo ! 

Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his 
issue 
Should become kings of Naples ? O, rejoice 
Beyond, a common joy, and set it down 
With gold on lasting pillars : In one voyage 
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis 
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife 210 

Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom 
In a poor isle, and all of us ourselves 
When no man was his own. 

Alon. {To Fer. and Mir.] Give me your hands : 
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart 
That doth not wish you joy ! 

Gon. Be it so ! Amen ! 

Re-enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly 
following 

O, look, sir, look, sir ! here is more of us : 

I prophesied, if a gallows were on land. 

This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy. 

That swear'st Grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore ? 

Hast thou no mouth by land ? What is the news ? 220 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 79 

Boats. The best news is, that we have safely 
found 
Our king and company ; the next, our ship — 
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split — 
Is tight and yare and bravely rigg'd as when 
We first put out to sea. 

Ari. [Aside to Pros.] Sir, all this service 
Have I done since I went. 

Pros, [Aside to Ari.] My tricksy spirit ! 

Alon. These are not natural events; they 
strengthen 
From strange to stranger. Say, how came you 
hither ? 

Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, 
I 'Id strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, 230 
And — how we know not — all clapp'd under hatches ; 
Where but even now with strange and several noises 
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains. 
And moe diversity of sounds, all horrible. 
We were awaked ; straightway, at liberty ; 
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld 
Our royal, good and gallant ship, our master 
Capering to eye her ; on a trice, so please you. 
Even in a dream, were we divided from them 
And were brought moping hither. 

Ari. [Aside to Pros.] Was 't well done ? 240 

Pros. [Aside to Ari.] Bravely, my diligence. 
Thou shalt be free. 

Alon. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod ; 
And there is in this business more than nature 
Was ever conduct of : some oracle 
Must rectify our knowledge. 



80 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

Pros. Sir, my liege, 

Do not infest your mind with beating on 
The strangeness of this business ; at pick'd leisure 
Which shall be shortly, single I '11 resolve you, 
Which to you shall seem probable, of every 
These happened accidents ; till when, be cheerful 250 
And think of each thing well. [Aside to Ari.\ 

Come hither, spirit : 
Set Caliban and his companions free ; 
Untie the spell. [Exit Ariel.] How fares my 

gracious sir.? 
There are yet missing of your company 
Some few odd lads that you remember not. 

Re-enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano and 
Trinculo, in their stolen apparel 

Ste. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no 
man take care for himself; for all is but fortune. 
Coragio, bully-monster, coragio ! 

Trin. If these be true spies which I wear in my 
head, here 's a goodly sight. 260 

Col. O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed ! 
How fine my master is ! I am afraid 
He will chastise me. 

Seh, Ha, ha ! 

What things are these, my lord Antonio ? 
Will money buy 'em ? 

Ant. Very like; one of them 

Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable. 

Pros. Mark but the badges of these men, my 
lords. 
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave, 



Scene One] THE TEMPEST 81 

His mother was a witch, and one so strong 

That could control the moon, make flows and 

ebbs, 270 

And deal in her command without her power. 
These three have robb'd me ; and this demi-devil — 
For he 's a bastard one — had plotted with them 
To take my life. Two of these fellows you ^ 
Must know and own ; this thing of darkness I 
Acknowledge mine. 

Cal. I shall be pinch'd to death. 

Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler ? 

Seh. He is drunk now : where had he wine ? 

Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where 
should they 
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em ? 28o 

How camest thou in this pickle ? 

Trin. I have been in such a pickle since I saw 
you last that, I fear me, will never out of my 
bones : I shall not fear fly-blowing. 

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano ! 

Ste. O, touch me not ; I am not Stephano, but a 
cramp. 

Pros. You 'Id be king o' the isle, sirrah ? 

Ste. I should have been a sore one then. 

Alon. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on. 

[Pointing to Caliban. 

Pros. He is as disproportion'd in his manners 290 
As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell ; 
Take with you your companions ; as you look 
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. 

Cal. Ay, that I will ; and I '11 be wise hereafter 
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass 



82 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

Was I, to take this drunkard for a god 
And worship this dull fool ! 

Pros. Go to ; away ! 

Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where 
you found it. 

Beh, Or stole it, rather. 

[Exeunt Cal., Ste.y and Trin. 

Pros, Sir, I invite your highness and your train soo 
To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest 
For this one night ; which, part of it, I '11 waste 
With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it 
Go quick away ; the story of my life 
And the particular accidents gone by 
Since I came to this isle : and in the morn 
I '11 bring you to your ship and so to Naples, 
Where I have hope to see the nuptial 
Of these our dear-beloved solemnized ; 
And thence retire me to my Milan, where 3io 

Every third thought shall be my grave. 

Alon. I long 

To hear the story of your life, which must 
Take the ear strangely. 

Pros. I '11 deliver all ; 

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales 
And sail so expeditious that shall catch 
Your royal fleet far off. [Aside to Ari.] My Ariel, 

chick. 
That is thy charge : then to the elements 
Be free, and fare thou well ! Please you, draw near. 

[Exeunt. 



Epilogue] THE TEMPEST 83 

EPILOGUE 

SPOKEN BY PROSPERO 

Now my charms are all o'erthrown, 

And what strength I have 's mine own. 

Which is most faint : Now, 't is true, 

I must be here confined by you. 

Or sent to Naples. Let me not. 

Since I have my dukedom got 

And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell 

In this bare island by your spell ; 

But release me from my bands 

With the help of your good hands : lo 

Gentle breath of yours my sails 

Must fill, or else my project fails. 

Which was to please. Now I want 

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant. 

And my ending is despair, 

Unless I be relieved by prayer. 

Which pierces so that it assaults 

Mercy itself and frees all faults. 

As you from crimes would pardon'd be. 

Let your indulgence set me free. 20 



NOTES 



ABBREVIATIONS 



Abbott 

Coleridge 

Dowden 

E. E. 

Fl 

F2 

F 3 

F4 

Ff 

Furness 

Konig 

M. E. 

Md. E. 

Moulton 

O. E. 

O. F. 

Wright 



Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, 3d edition. 
Coleridge's Lectures on Shakespeare. 
Dowden's Shakespere: His Mind and Art. 
Elizabethan English. 

First Folio (1623) of Shakespeare's plays. 
Second Folio (1632). 
Third Folio (1663 and 1664). 
Fourth Folio (1685). 
The four Folios. 

Furness's Variorum edition of The Tempest. 
G. Konig's Der Vers in Shakspere* s Dramen. 
Middle English (about 1100-1500). 
Modern English. 

Moulton's Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. 
Old English. 
Old French. 

Aldis Wright's edition of The Tempest 
Clarendon Press Series. 



Dramatis Personas. 
follows the Epilogue. 



This list is given in the Ff, where it 



ACT I — SCENE 1 



This opening scene, contrary to Shakespeare's usual practice, 
throws little light on the subsequent action of the play. It 
serves merely to transport us from the world of realities to the 
domain of enchantment. It contains a vivid sketch of naval 
operations, which proves that Shakespeare was proficient in the 
details of seamanship. Dr. Johnson asserted that in this 
dialogue, " perhaps the first example of sailors' language ex- 
hibited on the stage, there are, as I have been told by a skilful 

85 



86 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

navigator, some inaccuracies and contradictory orders." But 
the second Lord Mulgrave communicated to Malone " a most 
satisfactory refutation " of this criticism, maintaining that this 
scene " is a very striking instance of the great accuracy of 
Shakespeare's knowledge in a professional science, the most 
difficult to attain without the help of experience." Lord Mul- 
grave's explanations of the successive operations are given 
below. 

Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain. Captain John Smith, 
in his Accidence for Young Seamen, 1626, says that " The Master 
and his mate is to direct the course, command all the saylors for 
steering, trimming, and sayling the ship. The Boteswaine is to 
have the charge of all the cordage, tackling, sailes, fids, and 
marling spikes, needles, twine and saile-cloth, and rigging of the 
shippe." 

3. Good is not used in answer to the Boatswain's question, 
" what cheer ? " The Master could not speak of the cheer as 
good, when the ship was in danger of running aground. The 
word expresses satisfaction that the Boatswain is ready to take 
orders. A similar inter jectional use of good occurs in I. 16: 
" Nay, good, be patient " ; and in 1. 20 : " Good, yet remember 
whom thou hast aboard." It is probably a contraction of a 
common form of address, e.g. " Good, my lord." 

3-4. fall to 't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground. "Land 
discovered under the lee : the wind blowing too fresh to haul 
upon a wind with the topsail set. This first command is there- 
fore a notice to be ready to execute any orders quickly " (Mul- 
grave). 

8. mastefs whistle. In Shakespeare's day a great whistle 
of gold was the ensign of a naval commander, even of the highest 
rank. Cf. Pericles, iii. 1. 8-10 : 

" The seaman's whistle 
Is as a whisper in the ears of death. 
Unheard." 

The description of the storm in Pericles, iii. 1 should be com- 
pared throughout with the present scene. 

Blow, till thou hurst thy wind: addressed to the storm. A simi- 
lar apostrophe in Pericles, iii. 1. 44 : " Blow, and split thyself." 

9. if room enough, if there be sea-room enough. " The 
danger in a good sea-boat is only from being too near the land " 
(Mulgrave) . 



Scene One] NOTES 87 

11. Play the men, act with spirit. 

17-18. What cares these roarers. When the verb in E. E. 
precedes a plural subject, it is frequently in the singular. 
" When the subject is as yet future and, as it were, unsettled, 
the third person singular might be regarded as the normal 
inflection " (Abbott, § 335, where numerous examples are 
quoted). A plural nominative is also often followed by a 
singular verb, which Abbott regards as a survival of the 
M. E. Northern plural in es. 

18. roarers. In the language of Shakespeare's time a bluster- 
ing bully was called a roarer. Cf. Massinger, The Renagado, 
i. 3 : "A lady to turn roarer, and break glasses." 

for the name of king ? In this allusion to the contempt of the 
elements for regal authority we have an anticipation of the 
problem of the true limits of obedience and service which 
underlies this play. 

To cabin. Notice the contempt of the " old salt " for the 
*' landlubber," however high his rank. The Boatswain is an 
extraordinarily lifelike sketch. " What a grand old sea-dog 
is he ! Neither Smollett, nor Marryat, nor even Fenimore 
Cooper ever drew a more graphic character. In the space of a 
single page we learn to know him as thoroughly as though he 
lived and moved in our presence — a thorough seaman is he ; 
a fine, hardened, blustering, dogmatic, domineering old fellow, 
whose shaggy beard has been outspread in a hundred tempests, 
one not apt to spare either himself or his subordinates in the way 
of duty " (" Shakespeare a Seaman," St. James's Magazine, 
July, 1862). 

24. work the peace of the present, create peace at this instant. 
Of, signifying " coming from," " belonging to," when used with 
time signifies " during." (Abbott, § 176.) 

31-36. An allusion to the proverb, " He that's born to be 
hanged needs fear no drowning." 

33. the rope of his destiny, the hangman's rope. 

37-38. " The gale increasing, the topmast is struck to take 
the weight from aloft, make the ship drift less to leeward, and 
bear the mainsail under which the ship is laid to " (Mulgrave). 

37. Down with the topmast! strike or lower the topmast 
down to the cap. 

38. Brir^ her to try with main-course, keep her close to 
the wind with the mainsail. To " lie at try " is to keep as close 
to the wind as possible. Cf. Hakluyt's Voyages, 1598, I. 277 : 
" And when the barke had way, we cut the hawser, and so gate 



88 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

the sea to our friend, and tryed out al that day with our maine- 
course." 

39-40. they are louder than the weather or our office, they 
drown the roaring of the storm and my orders. 

49. for drowning, against drowning. Cf. Abbott, § 154. 

51. lay her a-hold . . . lay her off. The Boatswain, finding 
the effect of the single sail unsatisfactory, and the danger of ship- 
wreck ever more imminent, issues fresh orders : " Keep her to 
the wind as close as possible, set her foresail as well as her main- 
sail, so as to carry her off to sea again." 

55. must our mouths be cold? Possibly a contemptuous 
reference by the seaman to the chilling effect of prayer at such a 
crisis. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Sea Voyage, i. 1 : 

*' Thou rascal, thou fearful rogue, thou hast been praying. 

Is this a time 
To discourage our friends with your cold orisons ? " 

In The Scornful Lady, however, the phrase is used simply in the 
sense of being dead, which it may bear here. 

59. merely, absolutely. 

60. wide-chapped, with a wide mouth. 

60-61. lie drowning The washing of ten tides. Pirates, in 
the time of Elizabeth, were hanged on the shore at low-water 
mark, and left until three tides had washed over them. An- 
tonio declares that for the Boatswain three tide-washings are 
not enough — he deserves ten. 

69. long heath, brown furze. The reading of the Ff has been 
altered by Hanmer to ling, heath, broom, furze, on the ground 
that the epithets long and brown are stiff and out of place here. 
In support of the Ff reading, Furness quotes a passage from 
Lyte's Herbal (1576) : " There is in this countrie two kindes of 
Heath, one of which beareth his flowers alongst the stemmes, 
and is called long Heath. The other bearing his flowers iti 
tutteys or tuftes at the toppes of the branches, the which is 
called smal Heath." Lyte further speaks of heath growing on 
mountains that be " drie, hungrie, and barren," and of furze 
being found " in untoyled places by the way-sides." Furness 
therefore thinks that " the names of both plants were sug- 
gested by the word ' barren ' in Gonzalo's wish for ' an acre 
of barren ground,' and in calling the furze * brown ' an addi- 
tional hue of desolation is imparted by suggesting that the 



ScexeTwo] notes 89 

acre is so barren that even the weeds on it are dried up and 
discoloured." 
^70. The wills above, the will of the Powers above. 

SCENE 2 

With this scene we enter the domain of enchantment, and in 
lines 1-374 we have, for the most part, a sketch of the ancient 
history of the wonderful island. As has been mentioned in the 
Introduction (p. xxiii). The Tem^^esi, being practically in the form 
of a classical drama, requires an equivalent for the classical 
prologue, which explains to the audience the events that have 
produced the crisis with which the play is concerned. Prospero's 
conversations with Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban fulfill this func- 
tion admirably. They are models of lucid narrative, heightened 
by the fresh and vivid touches which dialogue imparts. 

1-13. Miranda's opening speech forms a skillful mode of 
transition from the preceding scene. It describes the storm, 
not as experienced on sea, but as witnessed from the land, and 
suggests that instead of being a natural outbreak of elemental 
fury, it is due to the influence of Prospero's art. 

I. your ... you. Throughout this dialogue Miranda in- 
variably addresses her father in the second person plural of 
respect, while he, except in 1. 17, speaks to her in the second 
person singular of affection. 

5-13. These lines give us the key to Miranda's character, in 
which tenderness and simple faith in good are throughout the 
leading notes. Notice her description of the vessel as " brave " 
and " good," and her instinctive confidence that it carried 
*' noble creatures." 

7. Who follows a neuter antecedent when it is personified, as 
here, " in her." 

II. or ere. The phrase is really pleonastic. Or represents 
E. E. (Br, " before." As this meaning of or died out, it seems to 
have been combined with ere for the sake of emphasis. Cf. 
Abbott, § 131. 

13. fraughting souls, the souls who composed the fraught or 
freight. 

14. piteous, pitying. 

15. O, woe the day! Miranda, when she speaks these 
words, supposes not that the crew has escaped, but that her 
father counts their destruction " no harm." 



90 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

19. Of whence. For this redundant phrase cf . Abbott, §179. 
more better. The double comparative is frequently used by 

Shakespeare. Cf. Abbott, § 11. 

20. jull, completely. 

25. Lie there, my art. Steevens quotes in illustration 
Fuller's anecdote about Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's Lord 
Treasurer, who, " when he put off his gown at night, used to say, 
' Lie there. Lord Treasurer.' " Voss aptly notices that " Shake- 
speare here very skillfully separates Prospero, the man, from 
Prospero, the magician. A magician, devoted body and soul 
to his art, can claim but little of our sympathy. . . . But 
Prospero's magic resides only in his mantle, staff, and book. 
Prospero himself remains akin to us." 

26. wreck. The Ff here, and in lines 390, 414, 488, read 
wracke, which gives a far finer rhythm. 

27. The very virtue of compassion, the very essence of com- 
passion. 

29-31. no soul . . . vessel. There is no necessity to alter the 
reading of the Ff ; the sense is clear, though grammatically there 
is an anacoluthon. Prospero begins to declare that no soul on 
board has been lost, but, before completing the sentence, he 
breaks off into the more emphatic assertion that not so much 
harm as a hair has befallen any one. 

31. Betid, happened. For other examples of the omission of 
ed in the past indicative and past participle after d and t, cf. 
Abbott, §§ 341 and 342. 

32. Which . . . which. The first which refers to " creature," 
the second to " vessel." 

35. inquisition, inquiry. 
41. Out, completely. 

60. backward. For a similar example of an adverb used as a 
noun, cf . Sonnet cxxviii : 

" To kiss the tender inward of thy hand." 

53. Twelve year. For the use of the noun in the singular, cf . 
S Henry IV, iii. 2. 224: "That's fifty-five year ago." Walker, 
Abbott, and Wright assert that the first year in this line is to be 
pronounced as a dissyllable, because it is more emphatic than 
the second. But the preferable scansion is that of Coleridge, 
Guest, and Furness : 

" Twelve | year | since, | Miran | da, twelve | year since." 



Scene Two] NOTES 91 

The emphasis at the beginning of the line is not on year but on 
twelve, and this is indicated by the speaker's voice pausing on the 
word, Cf. Appendix C, 2. 

Miranda, then, is about fifteen years old. Perdita, when" 
Prince Florizel finds her, is less than sixteen, and Marina, when 
forced from Tarsus, is only fourteen. The Princess Elizabeth, 
whose gentleness and winning charm may live again in these 
lovely, tender-hearted girls, was fifteen in 1611, when The 
Tempest was played at court. 

56. piece, a perfect specimen. 

57-59. This is the reading of the Ff, with the omission of a 
semicolon after princess, and is to be interpreted : " Thy father 
was Duke of Milan, and his only heir and princess had no 
meaner descent than this." Many editors adopt Pope's conjec- 
ture of a princess instead of and princess, but it is unnecessary. 

65. from. For this use of /rom in the sense of " away from," 
" apart from," cf. Abbott, § 158. 

Please you, if it please you. 

66-87. Prospero's speech here contains a complicated series 
of anacolutha. He begins with the intention of saying, " My 
brother received the government of my state from me, whilst I 
was engaged in the study of liberal arts." He first inserts the 
short parenthesis, " I pray thee . . . perfidious," and then takes 
up the subject of the sentence again in " he " (1. 68) ; this is 
followed by the involved series of relatival clauses, " whom next 
thyself. . . . Without a parallel " (11. 68-74) ; at the end of 
these Prospero has forgotten the beginning of his sentence, and 
starts a fresh main sentence in which " I " is subject and 
" brother " is reintroduced as the accusative after " cast upon." 
Finally, in 1. 77, " Thy false uncle " takes up again the original 
subject, " My brother and thy uncle," and finds its verb in 
"created " in 1. 81. 

70. as at that time, then. For this use of as, corresponding 
to the German als in alsdann, cf. the Collect for Christmas day : 
" Almighty God Who hast given us Thy only-begotten Son to 
take our nature upon Him, and as at this time to be born of a 
pure Virgin." Cf., too, Chaucer's Legende of Goode Women, 
1491 : " Us nedeth trewely Nothing as now." 

80. who., For other examples of the use of the relative in the 
nominative where we should expect the accusative, cf. Abbott, 
§ 274. 

81. trash for over-topping, a mixture of metaphors from 
hunting and gardening. To trash is to fasten a weight on 



92 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

the neck of a dog to prevent him from outrunning his com- 
panions. Cf. Othello, ii. 1. 312-313: 

*' If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash 
For his quick hunting." 

Overtopping is used of a tree that grows higher than its com- 
panions. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 23-24: 

" this pine is bark'd. 
That overtopp'd them all." 

82-83. or . . . Or, either ... or. 

83. key. There is probably a play on two senses of the word : 
(1) the keys of ofl&ce, (2) the key for tuning a musical instrument. 
The latter signification suggests the words that follow. 

85. that, so that. 

87. on H, of it. 

90. closeness, secrecy, retirement. 

91-92. " By what, except that it involved such retirement, 
surpassed in value all popular estimation." 

94-95. This alludes to the proverb that a father above the 
common rate of men usually has a son below it. 

95. in its contrary, in its opposite nature. Wright mentions 
that there are ten instances in Shakespeare's works of this form 
of the neuter possessive pronoun. It does not occur in the 
Authorized Version of the Bible, 1611. 

97. lorded, raised to the dignity of a lord. 

98. revenue : accented on the second syllable. 

99-102. like one . . . own lie. The general meaning of this 
passage is clear : " Like one who, by repeating a lie, has made 
his memory such a sinner against truth that he has come to 
believe his own invention." (Malone compares Bacon's account 
of Perkin Warbeck in his History of Henry VII: " Nay himself, 
with long and continual counterfeiting, and with oft telling a lie, 
was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be, and 
from a liar to a believer.") The construction, however, presents 
great difl&culty. If the reading of the Ff be retained, as in the 
present text, there is much plausibility in Philpott's interpreta- 
tion : " Who having, by telling of it, credited his own lie into 
truth, making thereby a sinner of his memory." This sentence 
would naturally have run, " Who having into truth, by telling 
of it, credited his own lie " ; but the words " made such a sinner 
of his memory," which should have been parenthetical, at- 



Scene Two] NOTES 93 

traded " credited " into " to credit," to suit themselves. 
Furnivall ingeniously suggests that " having into truth " means 
" cutting into, attacking truth." The passage would then run : 
** like one who, garbling truth by repetition of this garbled 
version, made such a sinner," etc. Most critics adopt Warbur- 
ton's emendation, " unto truth," which depends on " sinner " 
in the following line, but it is very doubtful whether the change 
is necessary. 

103. out o' the substitution, by reason of being my deputy. 

104. executing the outward face of royalty, performing the 
external duties of a king. 

107-109. " To have no overshadowing barrier between the 
r61e that he was playing and the actual office of Duke, he was 
determined to become complete sovereign of Milan." 

109. Me, for me. For omission of the preposition before the 
indirect object, cf. Abbott, § 201. 

112. dry, thirsty. 

117. his condition and the event, the terms he made, and the 
consequences. 

118. might, here used in the sense of could. For other in- 
stances cf. Abbott, § 312. 

119. but nobly, otherwise than nobly. 
122. hearkens, listens to. 

125. presently, immediately. 

128. levied, being levied. 

129. Fated, suited by destiny. 

134. Will cry it. The it here is probably used indefinitely, as 
in 1. 380 : " Foot it featly." It may, however, possibly stand 
for " my crying " understood from the previous line. 

134-135. a hint That wrings mine eyes to 't, a theme that 
forces tears from my eyes. For this use of hint cf. ii. 1. 3-4 : 
" Our hint of woe Is common." 

137. the which. This use of the before which is frequent in 
Shakespeare. " The question may arise why the is attached to 
which and not to who. . . . The answer is that who is con- 
sidered definite already, and stands for a noun, while which is 
considered an indefinite adjective; just as in French we have 
* lequel ' and not ' leqm.' " Abbott, § 270. 

144. In few, i.e. words. 

146. butt. This, the reading of the first three Folios, is, 
without doubt, the right one. Had Shakespeare written 
** boat " (as Rowe conjectured), it would not have been cor- 
rupted into the more unusual word. It is evident, however, 



94 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

that butt cannot here have its modern meaning of " cask," as 
there would be no sense in the words, " not rigg'd. Nor tackle, 
sail, nor mast." Brinsley Nicholson suggests that it is a 
nautical term, borrowed by Shakespeare from an Italian original 
to give coloring to the tale, and that it may be a version of 
Botto, a sort of sloop with very rounded ribs, very little run, and 
a flattish bottom. 

148. have. For a similar change from past to present tense, 
see 1. 205. 

quit . . . hoist. See note on betid, 1. 31. 

152. A cherubin. Used by Shakespeare and his contempo- 
raries as a singular form, though once (in Hamlet, iv. 3. 50) he 
uses cherub. His plural is cherubins. It may be worth noting 
that in the Spanish story of the magician advanced by Miss 
Porter (see Introduction, p. xvi, footnote) as the source of The 
Tempest, the daughter's name is Seraphina. 

155. deck'd. This word, as used here, is probably connected 
with the North-country phrase, to decJc or deg, i.e. to sprinkle. 
The sprinkling of clothes before ironing them is known as 



156. which, referring to " Thou didst smile," 1. 153. 

157. undergoing stomach, enduring resolution. For this 
use of undergoing cf. iii. 1. 2-3. For a similar use of stomach cf. 
Henry V, iv. 3. 35-36 : 

" That he which hath no stomach to this fight 
Let him depart." 

162. who is redundant. 

165. have steaded much, have been of much service. 

169. But ever, but at any time. 

Now I arise. The words are evidently used in their literal 
sense, as is shown by Prospero in the next line telling Miranda, 
who is rising on seeing him rise, to " sit still," i.e. probably 
*' keep sitting," not " sit quietly." Why Prospero should men- 
tion the fact of Ms rising is not very obvious, but nothing is 
gained by giving the phrase a symbolic interpretation, e.g. 
" I arrive at the climax of my story," or " I reach the crisis of 
my fortunes." The stage direction Resumes his mantle was 
added by Dyce, and has no warrant in the Ff. 

172. more profit, greater advantages. 

173. princesses. The reading of the first three Folios is 
princesse, the fourth having princess. The form is probably an 



Scene Two] NOTES 95 

abbreviation of princesses according to the custom that words 
terminating in the sound of s may be regarded by the ear as 
plural. Cf. As You Like It (F 1), i. 2. 175 : " The Princesse 
cals for you," to which Orlando replies : " I attend them with 
all respect and duty " ; cals is probably a misprint for call. 
Wright compares Macbeth, v. i. 29 (F 1) : " Their sense are 
shut," where sense is used for senses. 

174. hours, here used of the occupations in which hours are 
spent. 

176. beating, working to and fro excitedly. 

179. dear lady, auspicious mistress. 

180-184. The idea of there being crises in life on which the 
whole future depends finds expression under a different metaphor 
in Julius CcBsar, iv. 3. 218-221 : 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men. 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 

This theory of crises in our existence is one of the leading ele- 
ments in the poetry of Robert Browning. 

181. zenith is here used in the sense of culminating point of 
fortune. 

185. dulness, sleepiness. 

186. And appears to be used to mark the consequence, and is 
almost equivalent to therefore or and therefore. Wright compares 
Much Ado About Nothing, iv. 1. 287: 

** Beat. I was about to protest I loved you. 
Ben. And do it with all thy heart." 

188. Enter Ariel. It is probable that Ariel's costume re- 
sembled that of Jophiel, an airy spirit in Ben Jonson's Masque, 
The Fortunate Isles and their Union. He is described as attired 
in " light silks of various colours, with wings of the same, a bright 
yellow hair, a chaplet of flowers, blue silk stockings, and pumps 
and gloves, with a silver fan in his hand." 

189-237. In the first part of the dialogue between Prosper© 
and Ariel we learn further details about the origin of the storm 
in the first scene and the fate of the shipwrecked crew. 

193. quality, either (1) professional skill (cf. Hamlet, ii. 2. 
451-452 : " give us a taste of your quality ") or (2) con- 
federates. 



96 THE TEMPEST [Act On# 

196. beak, the pointed prow. 

197. waist, the part between the quarter-deck and the fore- 
castle. 

198. I flamed amazement, I caused amazement by appearing 
in the form of flame. Moulton quotes this phrase, and " afire 
with me," in 1. 212, to support the theory that Ariel belongs to the 
element of fire as well as of air. In any case Shakespeare was 
influenced in his description by travelers' tales. Cf. Introduc- 
tion, p. xiii, and the following passage, quoted by Capell from 
Hakluyt's Voyages (1598) : " I do remember that in the great 
and boysterous storme of this foule weather, in the night, there 
came upon the toppe of our maine yarde and maine maste, a 
certaine little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, 
which the Spaniards called the Cuerpo santo, and saide it was 
S. Elmo, whom they take to bee the advocate of Sailers. . . . 
This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying 
from maste to maste, and from top to top : and sometimes it 
would be in two or three places at once." Wright quotes a 
similar passage from Purchas (1625), where it is stated that 
some think the light to be a spirit. 

200. bowsprit. F 1 reads bore-spritt, of which Murray ( New 
English Dictionary) gives two other examples. 

203. cracks, peals. 

207. constant, self-possessed. 
' 209. a fever of the mad, a fever such as madmen feel. 

213. up-staring, standing on end. Cf. Julius Coesar, iv. 3. 
279-280: 

" Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil. 
That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare? " 

218. sustaining, that bore them up in the water. 
218-219. not a blemish. But fresher than before, there was 
not a blemish, and they were even fresher than before. 

222. cooling of. The verbal noun is naturally followed by of, 
and Shakespeare treats as verbals many cases which we should 
consider present participles. Cf. Abbott, § 178. 

223. odd angle, an angle of which no account has been taken. 

224. in this sad knot, sorrowfully folded thus. 

229. still-vex'd Bermoothes, the Bermudas constantly 
harassed by storms. Wright quotes several kindred spellings 
of the word — " the Bermootha's," from Webster's Duchess 
of Malji, iii. 2; " Barmotho pigs," from the same writer's The 



Scene Two] NOTES 97 

Devil's Law-case, iii. 2 ; and " the Barmoothes," from Fletcher's 
Women Pleased, i. 2. 

231. Who. See note on 1. 80. 

suffer' d labour, toil they have undergone. 

232. for, as regards. Abbott, § 149. 

237-304. The latter part of the dialogue between Prosper© 
and Ariel enlightens us as to the spirit's previous history, and 
the reasons why he puts " all his quality " at Prospero's service 
— yet with an undercurrent of discontent. " We feel that such 
a state of bondage is almost unnatural to him — yet we see that 
it is delightful for him to be so employed. It is as if we were to 
command one of the winds in a different direction to that which 
nature dictates, or one of the waves, now rising and now sinking, 
to recede before it bursts upon the shore " (Coleridge). 

239-240. It is somewhat surprising that Prospero, after ask- 
ing Ariel the time of day, and being informed that it is " Past 
the mid-season " {i.e. past noon), should add at once, as if he 
had more precise knowledge than his informant, " At least two 
glasses." Several critics, to get over the difficulty, have trans- 
ferred " At least two glasses " to Ariel. But the reading of the 
Ff is quite comprehensible, if we imagine Prospero, after Ariel's 
rather vague answer, raising his head and, by scanning the sun, 
realizing the exact time of day. 

240. two glasses, two hours. The ** glass " is with Shake- 
speare always the hour-glass. Cf. AlVs Well that Ends Well, 
ii. 1. 168-169: 

*' Or four-and-twenty times the pilot's glass 
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass." 

In the nautical phraseology of Shakespeare's day, however, the 
glass was always the half-hour glass. See further, v. 1. 223, note. 

242. pains, tasks. 

243. remember, remind. 

244. me, for me, the ethical dative. Cf. Abbott, § 220. 
252. think' st it much, consider it an important service. 
258. Sycorax. Many derivations of this name have been 

suggested. The most plausible is that of Hales, who regards 
it as a compound of the Greek ads (sow) and K6pa^ (raven), and 
thus a contracted form of Syokorax. " As both sows and ravens 
are associated with witchcraft and such superstitions, the com- 
pound might serve not ill to denominate that * foul witch.' 
The mere grossness of the one animal and the supposed malig- 



m THE TEMPEST [Act One 

nity of the other may be referred to ; and so the name Sycorax 
be designed to express a horrid mixture of those two char- 
acteristics." 

envy, here used in its E. E. sense of " malice." 

261. Argier, the older form of Algiers. 

266. for one thing she did. What this one thing was which 
saved the life of Sycorax we do not know. Boswell supposes 
that there was some novel on which the plot of The Tempest was 
founded, and that it contained the incident obscurely hinted at 
here. Charles Lamb suggests that light may be thrown upon 
the words from a passage in Ogilby's Accurate Description of 
Africa, 1670, which tells how, when Algiers was being besieged 
by Charles V in 1541, a witch of the town persuaded the governor 
not to surrender, by a prophecy that within nine days the siege 
would be raised and the enemy dispersed ; the event took place, 
as was foretold, and the witch being acknowledged the deliverer 
of the town was richly remunerated. " Can it be doubted for a 
moment," asks Lamb, "that the dramatist had come fresh 
from reading some older narrative of this deliverance of Algiers 
by a witch, and transferred the merit of the deed to his Sy- 
corax.? " It has, however, been suggested that Sycorax was 
spared because she was with child. Cf. 1 Henry VI, v. 4. 60, ff. 

269. blue-eyed. This may refer to (1) the pupil of the eye, 
and denote the " pale-blue, fish-like, malignant eye which is 
often seen in hag-like women " (Grant White) ; or (2) the livid 
color of the eyelid, which was a sign of pregnancy. Wright, 
who suggests this view, compares Webster's Duchess of Malfi, 
ii. 1 : " The fins of her eyelids look most teeming blue." 

272. for, because. 

274. grand, great. 

276. unmitigable, implacable. 

277. Into. For the use of into " after verbs of rest implying 
motion," cf. Abbott, § 159. 

284. Yes, Caliban her son. Ariel's interruption here is not 
easy to account for. Possibly, with his thoughts still running 
on his promised liberty, he has been absent-minded during part 
of Prospero's speech, but has caught the last words about the 
island not being at that time honored with a human shape. 
He therefore contradicts Prospero, reminding him that Caliban 
was then on the island, and Prospero, annoyed, retorts, " Dull 
thing, I say so," i.e. " I have already said that Caliban was 
there." Prospero throughout this part of the dialogue displays 
an amount of irritability which proves that he has naturally 



Scene Two] NOTES 99 

a fiery temper, mainly under control, though it flashes out from 
time to time under his present nervous strain of excitemeut. 

297. correspondent, obedient. 

298. my spiriting, my offices as a spirit. 
301-303. In F 1 these lines are printed : 

*' Go make thyself like a nymph o' th' sea : 
Be subject to no sight but thine and mine : invisible 
To every eye-ball else." 

Malone transferred " be subject " to the end of 1. 301, which 
supplies a fifth foot to that line, and gets rid of the redundant 
foot in 302. The result, however, is not entirely satisfactory. 
as 1. 302, even after the change, is harsh in its rhythm, and the 
words " and thine " seem superfluous, as it is ridiculous to order 
Ariel not to be invisible to himself. It is possible that the reading 
of 1. 301 in the later Ff, " like to a nymph," may be correct, and 
that the passage should run : 

" Go, make thyself like to a nymph o' th' sea : 
Be subject to no sight but mine ; invisible — " 

307. Heaviness, sleepiness. 

311. miss, do without. Notice this confession by Prosper©, 
that Caliban's services cannot be dispensed with. If Caliban 
represents the physical nature of man, and Ariel his intellectual 
and imaginative powers, it is clear that the lower service is 
nevertheless essential and also that Caliban must be held in 
stern subjection. 

314-316. Thou earth . . . thou tortoise. On the application 
of these phrases to Caliban, see Introduction, p. xix. They are 
both used of him before his appearance to prepare the audience 
for the entrance of an uncouth monster. 

316. when, an expression of impatience. 

321-374. The dialogue of Prospero with Caliban is in 
designed contrast to that with Ariel, We have seen how the 
airy spirit requites his benefactor ; we now learn how the half- 
brute monster repays his kindness with curses and constrained 
service. See further as to the significance of the passage. 
Introduction, p. xxi. 

321. wicked, probably " having baneful qualities." Spenser 
speaks of " wicked weed." The word is perhaps caught up by 
Caliban from Prospero's application of it in the previous line to 
Sycorax. 



100 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

323. a south-west. Southerly winds were supposed to bear 
fogs and vapors, causing sickness. Cf. As You Like It, iii. 5. 
50: "Like foggy south, puflBng with wind and rain"; and 
Coriolanus, i. 4, 30 : " All the contagion of the south light on 
you." One critic has ingeniously inferred from Shakespeare's 
constant disparagement of the south wind that he was " a person 
of a somewhat relaxed habit of body, and required a bracing 
air to be in the full enjoyment of health." 

you . . . ye. Originally ye is nominative, you accusative; 
but the distinction is not observed by Elizabethan authors. 
Ye is often used for you where an unaccented syllable is wanted. 

326. pen thy breath up, make thee gasp for breath. 

urchins, hobgoblins. The meaning of the word is made evi- 
dent by the connections in which it is used by Shakespeare and 
other Elizabethan writers, e.g. Merry Wives, iv. 4. 49 : " Like 
urchins, ouphes, and fairies." So Reginald Scot in his Discovery 
of Witchcraft speaks of having been frightened in childhood by 
stories about " spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies." 
An old song. The Urchins' Dance, runs as follows : 

" By the moon we sport and play. 
With the night begins our day : 
. As we frisk, the dew doth fall. 
Trip it, little urchins, all. 
Lightly as the little bee. 
Two by two, and three by three. 
And about go we, go we." 

The word has also the meaning of hedgehog, and it is probable that 
the uncanny, nocturnal habits of this animal came to be at- 
tributed to the obsession of fairies, and thence the name itself 
came to be applied to a class of malicious spirits. 

327-328. " Shall, during that desolate period of night when 
they are permitted to work, all practice upon thee." For this 
use of vast cf . Hamlet, i. 2. 198 : " In the dead vast and middle 
of the night." The various orders of spirits were supposed to 
have certain stated limits of time during which they might be 
active. Thus in King Lear, iii. 4. 121, the foul fiend. Flib- 
bertigibbet, " begins at curfew, and walks till ,the first cock." 
The Ghost in Hamlet departs at daybreak. 

334. Water with berries in 't. Some critics have detected in 
this a reference to coffee, which was as yet little known in Eng- 
land. But the reference is to cedar-berries. Btrachey (see 



Scene Two] NOTES 101 

Introduction, p. xiii) says : " The whole Islands . . . are full of 
Shawes of goodly Cedar . . . the Berries whereof . . . made a 
kind of pleasant drinke." 

339. Cursed be I that did so ! the reading of F 1, but the later 
Folios read " Curs'd be I that I did so," which is preferable as 
throwing the emphasis on curs'd instead of on I. 

342, sty, keep pent up as in a sty. 

351-362. This speech is assigned by the Ff to Miranda. 
Theobald, following Dryden's version, transferred it to Pros- 
pero, and the change has been accepted by practically all mod- 
ern editors. Yet the evidence against the Ff reading is not 
entirely conclusive. The passage as a whole certainly suits the 
lips of Prospero better than those of Miranda, and it is natural 
that the enchanter, whom Caliban has already admitted to be 
his teacher, should remind the monster of the instruction that 
he has bestowed on him. Moreover, Prospero must almost 
inevitably have taken pains to make Caliban speak before 
Miranda was old enough to act as tutor ; on the other hand, if 
the speech be Miranda's, it explains how Caliban had oppor- 
tunities of associating with her, which he sought to turn to evil 
account. The words " I pitied thee " fall naturally from 
Miranda, with her tender heart, and there is possibly a reminis- 
cence of the maiden's instructions in Caliban's reply to Ste- 
phano's claim of having been " the man i' the moon," ii. 2. 
143-144 : 

" I have seen thee in her. . . . My mistress show'd me thee." 

358. race, hereditary nature. 

364. red plague. Cf. Coriolanus, iv. 1. 13: "Now the red 
pestilence strike all trades in Rome." In The General Practise of 
Physicke, 1605, three different kinds of plague sore are men- 
tioned : " Sometimes it is red, other whiles yellow, and some- 
times black." 

rid, despatch, destroy. 

365. learning, used here, as often in E. E., in the sense of 
" teaching." In O. E. leornian = learn, and ISran = teach, 
but already in M. E. the meanings had become to some extent 
confused. 

Hag-seed, son of a hag. 

366. thou 'rt best : a confusion of two constructions : " To 
thee it were best," and " Thou had'st best." 

367. malice, malicious thing. 



102 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

369. old may either (1) be used in an intensive tense: cf. 
Much Ado About Nothing, v. 2. 98, " Yonder's old coil at home " ; 
or (2) it may mean " Such as age brings on "; cf. iv. 1. ^55, 
" aged cramps." 

370. aches, pronounced dissyllabically. In E. E. the noun 
is spelled ache, and the verb ake. This distinction is invariably 
preserved in the Ff. The pronunciation of ache, like the letter 
H, is made clear by an epigram of Hey wood, quoted by Wright: 

" H, is worst among letters in the crosse row. 
For if thou finde him other in thine elbow. 
In thine arme, or leg, in any degree. 
In thine head, or teeth, in thy toe or knee. 
Into what place soever H may pike him. 
Where euer you find ache, thou shalt not like him." 

373. Setebos. The name was probably taken by Shake- 
speare from Eden's History of Travayle, 1577, which contains a 
translation from the Italian narrative of Antonio Pigafetta, who 
accompanied Magellan in his circumnavigation of the globe. 
He relates that Magellan " took by a deceit " two gigantic 
Patagonians by loading them with presents, and then causing 
shackles of iron to be put on their legs, " makynge signes that 
he wold also gyve them those chaynes : which they lyked very 
wel by cause they were made of bryght and shynynge metal 
. . . when they felte the shakels faste abowte theyr legges, they 
begunne to doubte. ... In fine when they sawe how they were 
deceived they rored lyke bulles and cryed uppon theyr greate 
devyll Setebos to helpe them." 

375. Re-enter Ariel, invisible. A conventional stage costume 
was used to indicate invisibility. Henslowe in his diary men- 
tions among the wardrobe of his company, the Lord Admiral's 
men, " a robe for to go invisible." 

376-380. Mr. Gosse has suggested that in these lines we have 
a reminiscence of the passage in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 
where Hero describes her watch-tower to her lover as standing 

" Where all is whist and still. 
Save that the sea playing on yellow sand 
Sends forth a rattling murmur to the land." 

378. kiss'd. This was customary at the time before certain 
dances. Cf. Henry VIII, i. 4. 95-96 : 



Scene Two] NOTES 103 

" I were unmannerly, to take you out. 
And not to kiss you." 

. 378-379. If the Ff punctuation be preserved, as in the text, 
the American critic Allen's interpretation is probably correct: 
*' The nymphs are formed on the sands for a dance ; the waves 
are converted by the poet's imagination into a crowd of specta- 
tors, restless and noisy, until the spectacle shall begin ; when 
the nymphs indicate by taking hands, courtesying to, and kissing 
partners, that they are beginning, the waves are hushed by the 
signal into silent attention, and thus the nymphs do, in effect, 
kiss the wild waves whist, although they actually kiss, not the 
waves, but each other." Most editors put a comma after kissed, 
and interpret The wild waves whist as a parenthesis, " the wild 
waves being silent." Such a parenthesis, however, is awkward 
in a song, and the Ff punctuation is preferable. For whist 
in the sense of " hushed " or " silenced," cf. Spenser, Faerie 
Queene, vii. 7. 59 : " So was the Titanesse put down and 
whist." 

380. Foot itfeatly, dance gracefully. 

381. the burthen hear : Pope's emendation of the Ff reading, 
** bear the burden." 

382-383. The Ff print these lines as the burden of the song, in 
which case Hark, hark I and The watch-dogs bark are probably 
said by the " sweet sprites," and the double Bow-wow is sup- 
posed to come from watch-dogs behind the scenes. Capell 
assigns Hark, hark I and The watch-dogs bark to Ariel, in which 
case Bow-wow alone forms the burden. 

388. waits upon, attends. 

390. again, probably used for " again and again." 

396. fathom : another use of the singular for the plural. 
Cf . 1. 53. The Ff reading is fadom. 

399-400. " Everything about him that is liable to alteration 
undergoes a change through the action of the sea." 

With this beautiful sea-dirge should be compared the earth- 
dirge in Webster's The White Devil, v. 4 : 

" Call for the robin redbreast and the wren. 
Since o'er shady groves they hover. 
And with leaves and flowers do cover 
The friendless bodies of unburied men. 
Call unto his funeral dole 
The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole. 



104 THE TEMPEST [Act One 

To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm. 
And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm : 
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to man. 
For with his nails he'll dig them up again." 

Lamb's comment on this lyric is classic in English criticism : 
" I never saw anything like this dirge, except the ditty which 
reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in The Tempest. 
As that is of the water, watery ; so this is of the earth, earthy. 
Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve 
itself into the elements which it contemplates." 

405. ditty : properly the " words of a song." Cf. Bacon's 
Essays, xxxviii : " And the ditty high and tragical, not nice or 
dainty." 

remember, commemorate. 

406. nor no. For the double negative cf . Abbott, § 406. 
408. *' Raise your eyelids with their fringe of lashes." For 

this use of advance cf. iv. 1. 177 : " Advanced their eyelids." 
That most subtle of Shakespearean critics, Coleridge, says that 
** the solemnity of the phraseology assigned to Prospero is 
completely in character, recollecting his preternatural capacity, 
in which the most familiar objects in nature preserve themselves 
in a mysterious point of view." 

414. but, except that. 

something, somewhat. 

419. It goes on, the plan prospers. 

432. A single thing. Ferdinand plays upon the word. He 
believes that he and the King of Naples are one and the 
same person; he therefore uses this epithet with reference 
to its further sense of " solitary," and so " feeble and 
helpless." 

433. Naples, the King of Naples. Cf. the following line: 
" myself am Naples." 

435. never since at ebb, always since then flooded with tears. 

438. And his brave son. There is no further allusion in the 
play to a son of the Duke of Milan. He may have appeared in 
some lost source of The Tempest, and this accidental reference 
may have been preserved. Or Shakespeare, as Theobald sug- 
gested, may have marked out such a character in his first plan, 
but on second thoughts found it unnecessary. 

The Duke of Milan, Prospero, the rightful Duke. 

439. more braver. For the double comparative cf. Ab- 
bott, § 11. 



Scene Two] NOTES 105 

441. changed eyes, exchanged loving glances. Cf. Antony 
and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 156-157 : 

" To flatter Ceesar, would you mingle eyes 
With one that ties his points? " 

443. you have done yourself some wrong, you have injured 
your honor by asserting what is not the case, i.e. that you are 
King of Naples. 

450. both in eithefs powers. Both seems to be used for 
"each," or either used for "each other." There may, however, 
be an ellipsis of each after both — "They are both (each) in 
either's powers." Cf. Sonnet cxxxi: 

** A thousand groans . . . 
One on another's neck." (Abbott, § 12.) 

457-459. " Miranda's creed seems to be a simple faith in 
beauty " (Moulton). Her speech, however, is not quite logical. 
She declares (1) that nothing evil can dwell in such a temple 
as Ferdinand's body ; (2) that if the evil spirit have so fair a 
mansion, good things will strive to dwell within it. According 
to her second statement the " mansion " will be shared by " the 
ill spirit " and " Good things," and this contradicts her first 
statement. To get over the diflBculty it has been suggested 
(1) that with't is a misprint for in't; or (2) that with is used in 
the sense of chez, though no other instance of this is forthcoming. 

465. entertainment, treatment. 

468. gentle and not fearful. The most natural interpretation 
of these words is *' harmless and not terrible," in which case 
*' Make not too rash a trial of him " in 1. 466 must mean, " Do 
not rashly determine to put him to severe tests." This inter- 
pretation best suits Miranda's attitude throughout this episode, 
in which her anxieties are on behalf of Ferdinand, not of her 
father. It is possible, however, that gentle and not fearful 
means " of gentle birth and not a coward," and that therefore 
Prospero is warned not to " make too rash a trial of him " by 
engaging unadvisedly in a duel with him. 

469. My foot my tutor! This pregnant phrase may be para- 
phrased : " You, Miranda, to instruct me ! The foot to lecture 
the head ! " Cf . Lyly's Euphues, p. 261 : " Then how vaine is it, 
Euphues (too mylde a worde for so madde a mind), that the 
foot should neglect his oflBce to correct the face." 



106 THE TEMPEST [Act Twc 

473. Beseech, used, like pray, without the personal pronoun. 

478. there is. Cf. note on i. 1. 17-18. 

480. To the most of men, as compared with the majority. 

488. nor. Used inaccurately where and or or would be in 
place. The origin of the error is probably a confusion of two 
constructions, Shakespeare intending at first, perhaps, to em- 
ploy some such word as " heavy," and then substituting " but 
light." 

ACT II — SCENE 1 

This scene enlightens us further as to the character of Pros- 
pero's enemies ; it shows that Antonio, the arch-traitor, has 
merely been hardened in villainy by the lapse of years, and that ■ 
he has found a fit associate in Alonso's brother, Sebastian. The 
remarks of the pair, throughout the earlier half of the scene, are 
an unconscious self-revelation. " The prolonged and dull 
joking of Sebastian in this scene cannot be meant by Shake- 
speare to be really bright and witty. It is meant to show that 
the intellectual poverty of the conspirators is as great as their 
jovial oBiiquity " (Dowden). We are " shown the tendency 
in bad men to indulge in scorn and contemptuous expressions, 
as a mode of getting' rid of their own uneasy feelings of inferiority 
to the good, and also, by making the good ridiculous, of render- 
ing the transition of others to wickedness easy " (Coleridge). 
We are thus prepared for the iniquitous attempt of Antonio 
against the life of his former ally, Alonso, whose suzerainty he 
finds burdensome, and of the upright (though somewhat prosy) 
Gonzalo, whose " prating " he detests. To make such an 
attempt at the moment when he has been miraculously saved 
from death, and to enlist Alonso's brother as an accomplice, 
is a refinement of _ villain,y. The foiling of the plot is the first 
move in Prospero's policy of " countercheck " against his foes. 

I. Beseech. See note on i. 2. 473. 

2-3. " Our escape much more than balances our loss." 

3. hint. See note on i. 2. 134-135. 

5-6. " The owners of some merchantman, and the merchant 
who has shipped cargo in her." The double use of merchant in 
the same line, first for " the vessel " and then for " the trader," 
is awkward. 

II. The visitor, applied derisively by Antonio to Gonzalo, who 
is trying to console Alonso after the manner of a visitor to the 
sick. 



Scene One] NOTES 107 

12-13. According to Halliwell, watches that struck the hours 
were known by the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

15. tell, count; O. E. tellan. Cf. Milton, L' Allegro, where 
the shepherds are counting their sheep : 

" Every shepherd tells his tale 
Under the hawthorne in the dale." 

Sebastian, carrying on his jest about the watch, implies that 
each word of Gonzalo's represents a stroke. 

16-20. Gonzalo begins to moralize upon the result of enter- 
taining or " giving welcome to " every grief that approaches us. 
Sebastian, punning upon entertainer in its general application 
and in its specialized sense of " an innkeeper," flippantly sug- 
gests that the entertainer gets a dollar for his pains. Gonzalo 
retorts with a play upon dollar and dolour (grief). 

20. truer, more truly; the adjective for the adverb. 

22. wiselier, comparative form of adverb. 

28-29. Which, of he or Adrian, . . . begins to crow? We 
seem to have here a mixture of two constructions — " which of 
the two, viz. he and Adrian? " and " which, he or Adrian? " 
Of belongs to the first construction, and or to the second. Cf. 
A Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 336-337 : 

" Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right — 
Of thine or mine — is most in Helena." 

33. a laughter. Antonio proposes this as the wager. It is 
just possible, as Ingleby has suggested, that a laughter may be 
" the cant name for'some small coin commonly laid in betting." 
There is indeed no evidence in support of such an interpretation, 
but the pun involved would harmonize^with the verbal quibbling 
in the rest of the passage, and would give point to what seems 
otherwise an almost meaningless jest. Sebastian accepts the 
conditions with the usual formula of assent, a match. He loses 
through Adrian being the first to speak, and then bursting out 
into Ha, ha, ha, adds. So, you re paid. On Ingleby's hypothesis 
the jest consists in Sebastian paying Antonio with a ha, ha, ha, 
instead of a coin. The Ff give So, you're paid to Antonio, but 
Theobald's conjecture that the words belong to Sebastian renders 
the passage more intelligible. 

35-55. From Adrian and Gonzalo's description, in spite of 
Antonio and Sebastian's unmannerly interruptions, we learn 
what the climate and the scenery of the island are like. 



108 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

40. He could not miss *t. Either (1) he could not avoid 
introducing yet, or (2) he could not do without the island just 
now, uninhabitable as it is. Cf. Prospero's statement about 
Caliban, i. 2. 311 : " We cannot miss him." This interpreta- 
tion is more in keeping with Antonio's character than the former. 
He is more likely to make a fresh move in the game of repartee 
than merely to record the success of Sebastian's last stroke. 

42. temperance, temperature. In the next line the word is 
used as a proper name, like Charity. 

45. delivered, declared. 

52. lush and lusty, luxuriant and fresh. 

55. an eye of green, a slight shade of green. Eye was used 
for a small portion of anything and especially for a tinge of color, 
as when Boyle states : " Red with an eye of blue makes a 
purple." Malone quotes from A True Declaration of the Estate 
of the Colonie in Virginia, 1600 : " Not an eye of sturgeon as 
yet appeared in the river." Sebastian insinuates that the 
credulous Gonzalo is the green spot in the grass. 

56. *' He is not far wrong." 

63. glosses. We should more naturally use the singular. 

65-66. It is not very clear why one of Gonzalo's pockets 
should give the lie to his previous statement. The remark 
seems chiefly introduced to lead up to the pun in the next line. 

75. to their queen. To is here used in the sense of as or in 
the capacity of. Cf. St. Luke, iii. 8 : " We have Abraham to our 
father." 

76. widow Dido. The reference is to the famous Queen of 
Carthage, who was one of the favorite heroines of Renaissance 
poetry. Marlowe and Nash wrote a play about her. The 
jesting allusion to her as widow is possibly founded on. '^ome 
ballad of the day. She was, in point of fact, a widow when 
iEneas enjoyed her hospitality. 

82. of that, concerning that. Cf . Abbott, § 174. 

86-87. The miraculous harp is that of Amphion, which raised 
the walls of Thebes, or that of Apollo, which raised the walls of 
Troy. So Gonzalo's word has raised anew the walls, and the 
houses also, of ancient Carthage. See Tennyson's lyric Am- 
phion. 

94. Ay. The Ff assign this to Gonzalo, but it is preferable 
to adopt Staunton's conjecture that it is an exclamation uttered 
by Alonso on awaking from his trance of grief. This would 
explain Antonio's " Why, in good time," which refers ironically 
to Alonso's return to consciousness. It explains further why 



Scene One] NOTES 109 

Gonzalo in 1. 96 begins to recapitulate to the king the substance 
of the preceding conversation. 

104. Deighton gives the most plausible explanation of the 
obscure pun in this line : " You fished a long time before you 
succeeded in catching that word sort. You have repeatedly 
tried to make out that our garments are as fresh as if they had 
never been immersed in the sea, and now at last you qualify 
your assertion by the word sort." " In fished there is possibly 
an allusion also to their difficulty in fishing themselves out of the 
water." (Furness.) 

106-107. " You force these words into my ears, which are as 
loath to receive them as the stomach is to take food that it does 
not want." 

118-119. oafd Himself, impelled himself with arms as oars. 

120. shore, the cliffs on the shore. 

124. that has for its antecedent yourself in the previous line. 

127. Who hath cause to wet the grief on 't. Who may have 
as its antecedent either she or eye. If the former, paraphrase : 
*' Who lost to sight by banishment, though not by death, hath 
yet cause to fill your eyes with tears " (Wright). If eye be the 
antecedent, interpret : " which has cause to give tearful expres- 
sion to the sorrow for your folly " (Abbott). For other instances 
of the use of who with a neuter antecedent, of. Abbott, § 264. 

130. Weigh' d, hung evenly. 

loathness, reluctance. 

130-131. at Which end o' the beam should bow. If we pre- 
serve this, the Ff reading, the best explanation is Wright's, that 
it, whose antecedent is the indecision of Claribel described in 
1. 130, has been omitted ; cf . Abbott, § 404. But it is the beam 
of the balance itself that one naturally thinks of as bowing, and 
Spence's emendation " at which end o 't th' beam should bow " 
gives excellent sense, with a trifling change in the reading. 

135. the deafst, the most acutely felt part. Dear is used in 
E. E. to denote the excess or superlative of that to which it may 
be applied. Cf . Hamlet, i. 2. 182 : " Would I had met my 
dearest foe in heaven." 

138. time, seasonable time. 

142. cloudy, gloomy. 

143. plantation. Gonzalo uses the word in the sense of coloni- 
zation. Cf. Bacon's Essay of Plantations. Antonio jestingly 
interprets it in its ordinary sense. 

147-164. Gonzalo's sketch of his imaginary commonwealth 
is closely modeled on a passage in Montaigne, Book i. c. 30, " of 



110 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

the Caniballes," wMch Shakespeare had read in Florio's trans- 
lation : " It is a nation . . . that hath no kinde of traflake, no 
knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of 
magistrate, nor of politike superioritie ; no use of service, of 
riches or of povertie ; no contracts, no successions, no partitions, 
no occupation but idle ; no respect of kindred, but common, no 
apparell but naturall, no manuring of lands, no vse of wine, 
corne, or mettle. The very words that import lying, falshood, 
treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envie, detraction, and 
pardon were never heard of amongst them." 

152. Bourn, limit. 

156-158. Gonzalo had begun (1. 145) by supposing himself 
king of the island. But in his enthusiastic description of an 
ideal commonwealth in which all social obligations and class 
distinctions are to be abolished, he forgets the basis from which 
he started, and asserts that there is to be no sovereignty on the 
island. Sebastian and Antonio are quick to rally him on this 
self-contradiction, and for once they are probably Shakespeare's 
mouthpiece. For from the early days when he wrote (as is 
probable) the " Jack Cade " scenes in S Henry VI until the 
end of his career, he is always found ridiculing Utopian or com- 
munistic theories. " He who had earned the New Place, and 
become a landed gentleman by years of irksome toil, did not see 
that he was bound to share his tenements and lands with his 
less industrious neighbours. On the contrary, he meant to 
hold them himself by every legal title, and at his decease to 
hand them down to his daughter, and her sons, and sons' sons '* 
(Dowden). 

161. engine, instrument of war. 

163. it own. Cf. note on i. 2. 95, and Abbott, § 228. It is 
** an early provincial form of the old genitive." Cf. King Lear, 
i. 4. 235-236 : 

** The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long. 
That it had it head bit off by it young." 

168. Save. Before this word we must understand ** God,'* 
which was probably omitted in the Ff in deference to the Act i. 
Jac. 21, against profanity. 

171. nothing, nonsense. 

174. minister occasion, offer a cue. 

175. sensible, sensitive. -Ible and -able have often an active 
instead of a passive meaning in E. E. 



Scene One] NOTES 111 

181. An, if. Printed and in the Ff . Cf . Bacon, Essay 23 : 
** They will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their 
eggs." And is, in fact, the more correct spelling, for which an 
has been substituted by an editorial convention. An is fre- 
quently conjoined with if: cf. Richard II, iv. 1. 49: " An if I 
do not," and Prof. Herford's note ad loc: "An is the modern 
form of the E. E. and, ' if,' which is probably merely a special 
usage of the ordinary conjunction and. From being used to in- 
troduce a hypothetical sentence, and acquired itself a hypotheti- 
cal sense. An if is a trace of the process, before that sense had 
been definitely reached ; but in E. E. it is used simply as = if. 
It survives in the Somersetshire nif" 

183. would, here used for the conditional should. Cf. 
Wright's note on the line. 

185. a bat-fowling : a is the weakened form of the preposition 
on. Bat-fowling is explained by Gervase Markham in his 
Hunger s Prevention (1621) quoted by Wright. " For the man- 
ner of Bat-fowling it may be vsed either with Nettes, or without 
Nettes : if you use it without Nettes (which indeede is the most 
common of the two) you shall then proceede in this manner. 
First, there shall be one to carry the Cresset of fire (as was 
shewed for the Lowbell) then a certaine number, as two, three, 
or foure (according to the greatnesse of your company), and 
these shall haue poales bound with dry round wispes of hay, 
straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with pieces of Linkes, 
or Hurdes, dipt in Pitch, Rosen, Grease, or any such like matter 
that will blaze. . . . Then another company shall be armed 
with long poales, very rough and bushy at the vpper endes, of 
which the Willow, Byrche, or long Hazell are best, but indeed 
according as the country will afford so you must be content to 
take. . . . Thus being prepared, and comming into the Bushy, 
or rough ground where the haunts of Birds are, you shall then 
first kindle some of your fiers as halfe, or a third part, according 
as your provision is, and then with your other bushy and rough 
poales you shall beat the Bushes, Trees, and haunts of the Birds 
to enforce them to rise, which done you shall see the Birds which 
are raysed to flye and play about the lights and flames of the 
fier, for it is their nature through their amazednesse,. and affright 
at the strangenes of the light and the extreame darknesse round 
about it, not to depart from it, but as it were almost to scorch 
their wings in the same, so that those who have the rough 
bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat them down with the 
same, & so take them." 



11^ THE TEMPEST [Act Twa 

187-188. adventure my discretion, imperil my reputation for 
discretion. 

190. Halliwell-Phillips interprets this obscure line as follows : 
" Gonzalo asks them to laugh him to sleep, for he is very drowsy. 
Antonio replies, ' Go to sleep and hear us laugh,' the sound of 
which laughter, from a little distance, would soothe the drowsy 
counsellor into slumber. Antonio's speech, by the common 
idiom of inversion, is equivalent to ' Hear us and go to sleep.' " 
This explanation, however, is far from convincing, and more 
point is given to the passage if laugh is interpreted in the sense 
of " laugh at " (cf. " Scoffing his state," Richard II, iii. 2. 163, 
and " Smile you my speeches? " King Lear, ii. 2. 88). Gonzalo 
thus inquires, " Will you gentlemen, who are always a-laughing 
(cf. 175-176), continue to laugh at me when I am asleep? " 
Antonio retorts rudely, " Go to sleep, and then you'll find out 
whether we are laughing at you or not." 

194. the heavy offer, the offer that brings heaviness or drowsi- 
ness. 

204-296. " The scene of the intended assassination of Alonso 
and Gonzalo is an exact counterpart of the scene between 
Macbeth and his lady, only pitched in a lower key throughout, 
as designed to be frustrated and concealed, and exhibiting the 
same profound management in the manner of familiarizing a 
mind, not immediately recipient, to the suggestion of guilt, by 
associating the proposed crime with something ludicrous or out 
of place, — something not habitually matter of reverence. By 
this kind of sophistry the imagination and fancy are first 
bribed to contemplate the suggested act, and at length to 
become acquainted with it " (Coleridge). 

207. What thou shouldst he, what thou oughtest to be. Cf. 
Abbott, § 323, for other instances of this use of should. 

the occasion speaks thee : either " the opportunity calls to 
thee " or " declares what thou mayest be." 

216. wink'st, closest thy eyes. 

220. if heed me: for the ellipsis of you, cf. Abbott, § 387. 

221. Trebles thee o'er, makes thee three times as great as 
thou art. 

standing water, neither ebbing nor flowing, and so ready to 
be moved in either direction. 

224-226. " If you but knew how you encourage the design 
even while you mock at it, how in exposing it in its nakedness 
you clothe it with greater seriousness. Men who let their 
fortunes ebb do indeed, as you say, most frequently lose them- 



Scene OneI NOTES 113 

selves in shallows through their own fears and sloth." For the 
metaphor of. Julius Ccesar, iv. 3. 218-221, quoted in note on 
i. 2. 180-184. 

229. proclaim : attracted into the plural by " eye " and 
*' cheek." 

230. A matter, an important business, full of meaning. 

231. throes, pains. 

232-236. The passage may be paraphrased : " Although this 
lord with his weak memory (who, when once laid in the ground, 
shall be as little remembered as he now remembers other things) 
has here almost persuaded (for he is the very soul of persuasion, 
and to practice it is his only profession) the king that his son is 
alive." 

232. this lord. In all probability Gonzalo, who has been the 
king's chief comforter, though it is Francisco, according to the 
Ff, who gave the detailed narrative of Ferdinand's escape by 
his feat of swimming. 

236. Professes, practices as a profession; cf. 1 Henry IV, v. 
2. 91-92 : 

" I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale. 
For I profess not talking." 

242. a wink, here used of an infinitesimal portion of space; 
more usually of time. 

243. But doubt discovery there. If the Ff reading be re- 
tained, either but doubt means " without doubting " or " can- 
not " is carried on from the former line, " cannot but doubt 
discovery there," i.e. is uncertain whether it can find anything 
at this extreme limit of its vision. " Ambition itself cannot 
feel any further than that hope " (Porter). Capell reads 
** doubts." 

247. Ten leagues beyond man's life. Such a rhetorically 
exaggerated phrase need not be interpreted too precisely, but 
Antonio probably means " ten leagues beyond the point a man 
could arrive at by traveling all his life." 

248. note, knowledge, intimation. 

250. she that — from whom. The Ff reading, though gram- 
matically pleonastic, is probably correct. Antonio begins 
this clause, like the three previous ones, with she that, and 
then changes to from whom, which makes that superflu- 
ous. From whom is practically equivalent to " coming from 
whom." 



114 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

251. cast, thrown up by the sea. But the theatrical usage of 
the word, to " cast " for a part, suggests " act " and *' pro- 
logue " in the following lines, 

252. " And by the same destiny that cast us ashore we are 
fated to perform an act." 

253. prologue. Many plays in Shakespeare's time were 
preceded by a prologue. Cf. the workmen's play in A Mid- 
summer Night's Dream and the play scene in Hamlet. For the 
same theatrical metaphor see Macbeth, i. 3. 127-129 : 

" Two truths are told. 
As happy prologues to the swelling act 
Of the imperial theme." 

253-254. what to come In yours and my discharge, what is 
to come lies with us to perform. Discharge is another theatrical 
term. Cf . A Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 2. 95: " 1 will dis- 
charge it [the part of Pyramus] in either your straw-colour 
beard, ... or your French-crown-colour beard." 

259. Keep. By an abrupt change of construction Claribel is 
directly addressed by " every cubit," instead of being referred 
to in the third person as " that Claribel," as in the previous line. 

265-266. could make A chough of as deep chat, could teach 
a red-legged crow to talk as profoundly. Cf. All's Well that 
Ends Well, iv. 1. 22-23 : " chough's language, gabble enough, 
and good enough." 

270. Tender, regard. 

274. fellows, companions. 

277. 'T would put me to my slipper, it would make me have 
to wear a slipper instead of a boot. 

279. candied, congealed. Cf. Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 225- 
227: 

" will the cold brook. 
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste. 
To cure thy^o'er-night surfeit? "> 

Preserving the Ff reading, we may interpret the passage : " Let 
twenty consciences, that bar my way to the throne of Milan, be 
frozen or be melted into insensibility before they cause me a 
twinge." In this case melt is the past participle for melted. 
Cf. note on i. 2. 31. Upton proposed to read " discandied," 
from " discandy," which is used as equivalent to " melt " in 
Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 20-23: 



Scene One] NOTES 115 

" The hearts 
. . . discandy, melt their sweets 
On blossoming Caesar." 

283. Whom, referring to brother in 1. 280. 

285. perpetual wink, the everlasting sleep, or closing of eyes. 
Cf. 1. 216. 

286. morsel, here applied contemptuously by Antonio to 
Gonzalo. For a somewhat similar use of the word Wright 
compares Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 56-57 : " How doth my 
dear morsel, thy mistress.? " 

287. Should not, would not in that case. Cf. Troilus and 
Cressida, i. 3. 115-116: 

" the rude son should strike his father dead : 
Force should be right." 

Cf. Abbott, § 322. 

288. suggestion, prompting, temptation. Cf . Sonnet cxliv : 

" Two loves I have of comfort and despair. 
Which like two spirits do suggest me still." 

289. tell the clock, count the strokes of the clock. Cf. 1. 15. 
296. fall it, let it fall. Cf. Abbott, § 291. 

298. you, his friend. 299. them. The abrupt change from 
the second person singular to the third plural has led some 
critics to adopt thee instead of them. But this is unneces- 
sary. " Ariel soliloquizes, and is reviewing what he has to do. 
Gonzalo, the especial friend, is in imminent danger, and must 
be at once protected ; and all of them must be kept alive, just 
as he had saved them in the tempest when not a hair perished " 
(Furness). 

306. sudden, speedy. 

308-309. Why, how now? ... ghastly looking? Staunton, 
from a comparison of these lines with 317-322, assigned them to 
Gonzalo, and transferred " What's the matter? " to Alonso. 
Dyce adopts this emendation, and adds the following stage 
directions : 

" Gon. [waJcing.] Now, good angels 

Preserve the king. [To Seb. and Ant.] Why, how now! [To 

Alon.] Ho ! awake ! — 
[To Seb. and Ant.] Why are you drawn? Wherefore thia 
ghastly looking? 

Alon. [waking.] What's the matter ? " 



116 THE TEMPEST [Act Two 

310. securing, guarding. 

319. shaked. For this weak form of the past tense instead of 
the strong shook, cf. 1 Henry IV, iii. 1. 16-17: 

" The frame and huge foundation of the earth 
Shaked like a coward." 

321. That 's verily. For this use of an adverb instead of an. 
adjective, cf. Abbott, § 78. 

SCENE 2 

This scene opens the comic underplot of the play. Caliban, 
who has hitherto been seen in contrast with humanity in its 
highest development, is now brought into contact with the dregs 
of civilized society in the persons of Stephano and Trinculo. 
Stephano's " bottle " wins from the savage the ready allegiance 
which Prospero's nobler gifts had failed to obtain. Yet the 
" very shallow monster," with his perverted instinct of adoration 
and his rude poetic sense, is felt to be superior to the drunken 
butler and jester with whom he forms a league against the 
*' tyrant " Prospero. The conspiracy, hallowed by Caliban's 
impassioned Ode to Liberty, is the burlesque counterpart 
of the conspiracy in the previous scene. 

5. urchin-shows, apparitions of goblins. By derivation 
urchin means hedgehog. Cf. note on i. 2. 326, and for the 
use of urchin as an adjective cf . Milton's Comust 845, " urchin 
blasts." 

9. Sometime, sometimes. 

10. after, afterwards. 

11. my barefoot way, the path in which I walk barefoot. 
mount, raise. 

13. wound, twisted around by. 

15. and, and that too. For this emphatic use of and, cf. 
Abbott, § 96. 

18-19. bear off, a pregnant phrase, equivalent to " bear and 
so keep off me." 

21. bombard, a large vessel for holding liquor. Halli well- 
Phillips quotes the following notice of them from Heywood's 
Philocothonista, 1635 : " Other Bottles wee have of Leather, but 
they most used amongst the Shepheards and harvest people of 
the Countrey ; small Jacks wee have in many Ale-houses of the 
Citie, and Suburbs, tipt with silver, besides the great black Jacks 



Scene Two] NOTES 117 

and bombards at the Court, which when the French-men first 
saw, they reported at their returne into their Countrey, that the 
English-men used to drink out of their Bootes." In 1 Henry I V, 
n. 4. 496-497, Falstaff is called " that huge bombard of sack." 
The word is derived from O. F. bombarde, and is used by Lyd- 
gate, Caxton, and others for " a cannon " throwing a stone-ball 
or large shot. Thence applied to a vessel for liquor on account 
of some resemblance to an early cannon. 

29. </zfs^s/i/>am<ec?, a painting made of this fish. Trinculo's 
ideal of art is evidently a daub on a board hung out before a 
booth at a fair. Miss Porter quotes from Jasper Waynes' Citie 
Match (1639) : " Enter Bright hanging out the picture of a 
strange fish." She cites also an item from the office book of Sir 
Henry Herbert : " A license to James Scale to shew a strange 
fish for half a yeare, the 3d of September 1632." 

31. make a man, make a man's fortune. 

33. doit, the smallest coin. Coryat, in his Crudities, says 
that " eight doits go to a stiver, and ten stivers do make one 
English shilling." 

34. a dead Indian. Various commentators have attempted 
the hopeless task of identifying the savage whose body was thus 
exhibited. Doubtless many of the Elizabethan seamen brought 
home " natives " on board their ships. Thus Frobisher, on his 
first voyage, 1586, took captive an Indian who " for very choler 
and disdain, bit his tong in twaine within his mouth ; notwith- 
standing he died not thereof, but lived till he came in Englande 
and then he died of colde which he had taken at sea." 

38. suffered, suffered death. Cf. " suffered under Pontius 
Pilate " in the Apostles' Creed. 

42. shroud, hide. 

43. the dregs of the storrri. Trinculo is still keeping up the 
image of the bombard full of liquor. He will hide until the very 
last drops of the storm are past. , 

44-55. " Stephano sings a certain jolly sea-song. Hearken 
to the shrewd and diverting knave as he trolls away, bottle in 
hand, and monarch of all he surveys. There's good stuff in that 
song ; the writer must have smelt salt water ; snuffed the sea- 
breeze with a hearty relish, and often had his jacket wetted with 
the spray " (" Shakespeare a Seaman," St. James's Magazine, 
July, 1862). The song, in itself, scarcely warrants so confident 
an inference, but it is a link in the chain of evidences which go 
far to prove that Shakespeare was, at some period, a traveler 
by sea. 



118 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

52. tang, twang. 

61. Ind, India. 

62. your, used colloquially, as in Hamlet, iv. 3. 22-23 : " Your 
worm is your only emperor for diet." 

64. give ground, give way. 

69. should he learn, should he have learned, so as to be able 
to speak it. 

71. recover, restore. 

73. neafs-Zcaf/ier, cow leather used in shoes. Ci. Julius Ccesar, 
L 1. 28-29 : " As proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather." 

80. / will not take too much for him, whatever I get for him 
will not be too much. 

83. trembling, a sign of being possessed by a devil. Miss 
Porter quotes from Harsnet's Popish Impostures (1603) : "The 
spirits being commaunded to goe downe into her left f oote they 
did it with vehement trembling." 

85. Come on your ways. " Ways " is probably the old gen- 
itive used adverbially. Wright compares the German er zog 
seines Weges, he went his ways. 

86. cat, alluding to the proverb, " good liquor will make a cat 
speak." 

98. Amen ! Stop ! that is enough for this mouth. 

103. / have no long spoon. This alludes to a reputed cus- 
tom in the Morality Plays of the Vice, furnished with a long 
wooden spoon, eating out of the same dish as the Devil. Cf. 
Comedy of Errors, iv. 3. 64 : " Marry, he must have a long spoon 
that must eat with the devil." 

109. very Trinculo, the real Trinculo. 

119. is not constant, is unsettled. 

120. an if. See note on ii. 1. 181. 

131. Stephano does not take any notice of Caliban's interrup- 
tion, but again presses Trinculo to swear upon the bottle how he 
escaped. 

142. when time was, once upon a time. 

150. Well drawn, a good draught. 

160. / could find it in my heart, I feel inclined. 

165. Another reference to the cedar berries which the ship- 
wrecked crew of The Sea-Venture found gave a pleasant flavor 
to water. Cf. i. 2. 334. 

172. pig-nuts: the tuber or root-stock of the plant known as 
the Bunium flexuosum. It is round and brown, white inside, 
and pleasant to the taste. It cannot be pulled up by force, but 
needs to be " dug " for. 



ScexeOne] notes 119 

176. scamels. The word may mean either (1) " limpets," a 
diminutive of scam, shellfish, derived from the Norse skama or 
shell ; or (2) some kind of rock-breeding bird. Stevenson, in his 
Birds of Norfolk, says that the female bar-tailed Godwit is called 
a scamell by the gunners of Blakeney. But this bird is not a 
rock-breeder, and therefore either Caliban's description is not 
accurate, or the word in Shakespeare's time must have had a 
wider application. Of the numerous conjectural readings the 
most plausible is sea-mells or sea-malls (Theobald, Steevens, 
Malone, Harting), i.e. sea-gulls. Young sea-gulls were formerly 
considered great delicacies, and were captured before they could 
fly. Both Jourdan and Strachey tell of " a kind of web-footed 
fowle of the bigness of a sea-mew " that the men learned to 
catch " by standing on the rocks or sands by the sea-side and 
hollowing, laughing, and making the strangest outcry that 
possibly they could with the noise thereof the Birds would come 
and settle upon the very arms and head of him who cried." 

179. inherit, take possession. 

187. trencher. The Ff read trenchering. Pope's emendation 
has usually been accepted, though Grant White thinks that 
Caliban, being drunk, would naturally sing " trenchering " after 
** firing " and " requiring." 



ACT III — SCENE 1 

This scene strikes more clearly than any other the chief kej^- 
note of the play — that true freedom consists in service. 
Ferdinand and Miranda are both eager to undertake the 
lowest drudgery for the other's sake, and thus prove that 
their love, though so sudden, is of the type that will endure 
(see Introduction, pp. xxii-xxiv). Moulton holds that in 
the introduction of this episode of " love at first sight" Shake- 
speare intends " to give increased reality to the story " by in- 
cluding one of the " elements of common life that have kinship 
with enchantment " (p. 239). But this, though he works it 
out very ingeniously, is extremely doubtful. Instances of 
love at first sight are far too common in the Shakespearean 
drama for special significance to be attached to the episode 
in The Tempest. Shakespeare even quotes with approval, in As 
You Like It (iii. 5. 82), Marlowe's line : 

" Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight ? '* 



120 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

' 1. There he some sports are painful. For the omission of 
the relative cf. Abbott, § 244, and for the use of be of. Abbott, 
§300. 

1-2. and their labour Delight in them sets off. (1) Labour 
may be nominative to sets off, and delight accusative, in which 
case sets off means " heightens by contrast." This is the sense 
in which " sets off " is most frequently used by Shakespeare, 
and this rendering best suits the use of and. (2) Delight may 
be the nominative and labour the accusative. In favor of 
this is the more natural sequence of ace. nom. verb, instead 
of nom. ace. verb. In this case sets off means " is a set-off 
against," " removes." 

3-4. most poor matters Point to rich ends, very mean 
transactions or operations have rich issues in view. 

5. heavy, burdensome. 

6. quickens, gives life to. 

9-10. In the case of the shipwrecked mariners of The Sea 
Venture, this toil of log-carrying brought on mutiny. For the 
building of pinnaces, Strachey says, the Governor held them 
strictly to their work, " namely, to fell, carry, and sawe Cedar, 
for the Carpenter's purpose," till they conspired and rebelled. 

11. sore injunction, an injunction laid upon me with a sore 
penalty attached. 

13. I forget, i.e. to go on with my work. 

15. Most busy lest, when I do it. These words form one 
of the most difficult problems in Shakespearean textual criti- 
cism. The different emendations and interpretations of the 
passage since the time of Pope occupy twelve pages of Furness' 
Variorum edition. As it stands it cannot be construed. Of 
the emendations suggested, the following are the most im- 
portant : (1) Most busy, least when I do it. This is the reading 
of the later Ff, except that they put the comma after least. 
The passage may then be paraphrased, " I forget to go on 
with my work, but these sweet thoughts about my mistress 
do, as a matter of fact, give fresh alacrity to my labors, and 
so I am really most engaged on my task when I am least oc- 
cupied with it." With this interpretation we must look on 
the natural order of " least when " as reversed, and " it " as 
referring to " the work " understood from " my labours " in 
the previous line. (2) Most busiest (or possibly busiVest for 
busilyest) when I do it. In this case " it " refers to " forget," 
and we interpret, " I am most busy (for my mind is so oc- 
cupied with thoughts) just when I am forgetting my work. 



Scene One] NOTES 121 

and so seem idle." (3) Spedding conjectures, most busiest, 
when idlest, which Wright regards as on the whole the best 
suggestion yet made. (4) Most husiless when I do it, " least 
busy when engaged in the work, because the thought of my 
mistress makes the task seem trivial." This is, however, 
most unlikely, for husiless is found nowhere else, and is a word 
of more than questionable formation. 

31. worm, used in the sense of " creature " as a term of 
commiseration. 

32. visitation : suggested by " infected " in the previous 
line, both words being used of the plague. 

37. broke, for broken. Cf. Abbott, § 343. 

38. the top of admiration, that beyond which admiration 
cannot go. 

46. put it to the foil, foiled, defeated. 

52. features : used in E. E. of the whole bodily shape, not, 
as now, merely of the face. Cf. Richard III, i. 1. 19, where 
the hunchback king complains that he is " Cheated of feature 
by dissembling nature." 

53. skilless of, ignorant of. 

, 62. wooden slavery, bondage of bearing logs. 

than to suffer. For the construction cf. Abbott, § 350: 
" To is often omitted in the former of two clauses and inserted 
in the latter, particularly when the finite principal verb is an 
auxiliary or like an auxiliary." 

63. The flesh-fly blow my mouth, the stinging horse-fly 
light on my lips. Shakespeare uses the word blow in con- 
nection with flies in Antony and Cleopatra (v. 2. 60) and in 
The Winter's Tale (iv. 4. 820). 

70. hollowly, insincerely. 
invert, change, pervert. 

71. What : used for the indefinite pronoun any or anything. 
Cf. Abbott, § 255. 

78. and much less take, and much less dare take. 

79. die to want, die through wanting. Cf. Abbott, § 356. 

80. it relates to nothing expressed by Miranda, but to what 
her characteristic delicacy shrinks from naming — love. 

81-86. " Miranda speaks with the sacred candour from 
which spring the nobler manners of a world more real and glad 
than the world of convention and proprieties and pruderies " 
(Dowden). A similar instance of this " sacred candour " is 
Elaine's declaration of love to Lancelot, in The Idylls of the 
King. 



122 THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

84. fellow, companion. 

94. book, the magician's conjuring-book. The last cry of 
Marlowe's Faustus, as the devils come to drag him to hell, is, 
" I'll burn my books." 

SCENE 2 

In this scene we see that the conspiracy against Prospero, so 
enthusiastically started, is not prospering. Quarrels betweeff 
Trinculo and Caliban are already disturbing the unity of the 
*' triple alliance " ; and Ariel's unseen interference provokes a 
downright hand-to-hand encounter between Stephano and 
" lieutenant " Trinculo. But peace is patched up for a time, 
and Stephano inspirits the company with his song, which 
Dowden has jestingly named " the Marseillaise of the en- 
chanted island." 

3. bear up : a nautical phrase meaning to " put the helm 
up, and keep a vessel off her course." 

Servant-monster. For Ben Jonson's mockery of this phrase, 
of. Introduction, p. vii. 

5. the folly of this island : possibly a toast which Trinculo 
proposes to Caliban to drink, but more probably one of Trin- 
culo's jealous asides. 

7. brained like us, having brains like ours. 

10. set in thy head, having a fixed look through drinking. 
In the next line Trinculo interprets the words literally. 

18. standard, standard-bearer. 

19-20. he's no standard, he's too drunk to stand. 

28-30. in case to justle, in the humor for jostling. 

29. deboshed, debauched. 

63. this thing, Trinculo. 

dare not, would not dare under any circumstances ; stronger 
than dares. 

75. quick freshes, the living springs of fresh water. Strachey 
notes the lack of " fresh Rivers " in the Bermudas. 

78-79. make a stock-fish of thee, beat thee as a stock-fish 
(dried cod) is beaten before it is boiled. 

98. paunch him, run him through the paunch or belly. 

101. nor hath not. For the double negative cf. Abbott, 
§ 406. 

103. but, only. 

104. utensils, apparently accented on the first syllable. 

105. " With which he will deck his house, when he has it.'* 



Scene Three] NOTES 123 

The clause " which he'll deck his house withal " is interrupted 
by the change to " when he has a house." 

106. that, that which. 

to consider, to be considered. Cf. Abbott, § 405. 

109. she, for her. Cf. Abbott, § 211. 

111. Is it so brave a lass? For this use of it, cf. i. 2. 134. 

127. but while-ere, only a short time since. 

128. do reason, do what is reasonable. 

132. Thought is free. This was a proverbial expression; 
cf. Twelfth Night, i. 3. 73 : " Now, sir, ' thought is free.' " 
Furness refers to Skelton's Phyllyp Spar owe, 1. 1201 ; " Thought 
is franke and f re " ; and Wright quotes an instance of the 
phrase from Lyly's Euphues. 

136. the picture of Nobody. We cannot identify the exact 
picture alluded to; it may have been the print of Nobody, 
depicted as a man, with merely head, arms, and legs, which 
is prefixed to the anonymous comedy. Nobody is Somebody, 
printed before 1600; or it may have been the engraving on 
an old ballad. The Well-spoken Nobody, which represents a 
ragged man surrounded by broken household utensils, and 
bearing the motto, " Nobody is my name that beareth every- 
bodyes blame." 

144-152. After all, Caliban is a poet. For the sake of 
this one passage, his ugliness is forgotten by the delighted 
reader, and all his faults are forgiven. .r-^ •"''.• 

151. that, so that. 

156. by and by may here, like presently in E. E., mean 
immediately, or it may = shortly, as in 1 Henry IV, v. 4. 109: 
*' Imbowelled will I see thee by-and-by." 

162. Wilt come? These words have been transferred by 
some critics to Stephano. But they are probably addressed 
by Trinculo to Caliban, who, vexed at his companions for 
running after the music instead of hurrying to Prospero's 
cell, may have lingered behind. 



SCENE 3 

Antonio and Sebastian are still intent on carrying out the fell 
design against Alonso in which they have once been foiled, but 
they are now to have their misdeeds brought home to them 
with appalling suddenness. They find themselves bidden to 
a mysterious banquet, which vanishes in thunder and lightning. 



IM THE TEMPEST [Act Three 

whence Ariel in the form of a harpy warns them of their doom. 
*' The whole past stands out before them as no more than the 
story of one foul deed and its avenging; the very sea which 
they had made the innocent accomplice of their crime has 
bided his time to requite them, and the shores, yea, eyery 
creature, are incensed against them. The future looms before 
them as lingering perdition stretching beyond death. . . . 
All space and time seems to have resolved itself into a trap 
of fate for them; and there is but one small avenue of escape 
hinted at in * heart-sorrow and a clear life ensuing ' " (Moulton). 
Alonso is moved to repentance by the strange apparition, but 
Antonio and Sebastian are inspired for the time to fresh 
fury. 

I. By 'r lakin, by our ladykin, or little lady, i.e. the Virgin. 
3. forth-rights and meanders, straight paths and tortuous 

windings. 

8. for my flatterer, to flatter me. 

II. he's so out of hope, there's no hope of his being still 
alive. 

14. throughly, thoroughly. 

15. oppressed, overcome. 

Above. In the Ff this stage direction reads on the top, 
" meaning, perhaps, in some machine let down with ropes 
from the ceiling, or possibly only in the balcony at the back 
of the stage." 

21. A living drollery. A drollery, in Shakespeare's time, 
meant a puppet-show. A living drollery is a show in which 
the figures are not wooden dolls, but living persons. 

22-24. unicorns. Described by Pliny as having " the head 
of a stag, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, while 
the rest of the body is like a horse. It makes a lowing noise 
and has a single black horn projecting from the middle 
of the forehead, two cubits long." He wisely adds that 
this animal " cannot be taken alive." Pliny, to whom we 
owe also our original information about the Phoenix, confesses 
ignorance as to " whether it be a tale or no that there is never 
but one of them in all the world, and the same not commonly 
seen." He describes the bird " by report " as being " as big 
as an ^Egle ; for colour, as yellow and bright as gold (namely, 
all about the necke) ; the rest of the bodie a deep red purple; 
the taile azure blew." For the further legend, that there is 
only one tree in Arabia on which the Phoenix builds, cf. The 
Phoenix and the Turtle : 



Scene Thbee] NOTES 125 

*' Let the bird of loudest lay. 
On the sole Arabian tree. 
Herald sad and trumpet be." 

25. what does else want credit, whatever likewise is in- 
credible. 

31-32. Who . . . Their manners are. We should expect 
*' who are more gentle in their manners," but the construction 
^ irregular. Cf. Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 134-135 ; 

" a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter. 
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet." 

36-37. muse Such shapes. If we adopt the punctuation of 
the Ff, which puts no stop after muse, we must treat the word 
as a transitive verb governing such shapes, and meaning " won- 
der at." This construction, however, is not used elsewhere 
by Shakespeare, and Keightley may therefore have been right 
in punctuating as follows : 

" I cannot too much muse. 
Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing 

a kind 
Of excellent dumb discourse ! " 

39. Praise in departing. A proverbial phrase, meaning 
** do not praise till the entertainment is over." A play of 
Stephen Gosson's was called Praise at Parting. 

45-46. This has generally been understood to refer to goitre, 
a disease common in mountainous districts. But Furness 
doubts whether so widespread and well known a disease could 
be spoken of as an incredible traveler's tale, and also whether 
the word " wallet " could be used of a mere excrescence of 
flesh. He believes that some such legend is alluded to as is 
related concerning The Satyrs in a collection of tales made by 
Gesner : " They cary their meat vnder their chin as in a 
storehouse, and from thence being hungry they take it forth 
to eate." 

46-47. Cf . Othello, i. 3. 144-145 : 

" The Anthropophagi and men whose heads 
Do grow beneath their shoulders." 

This may have been suggested by Raleigh's statement in his 
Discovery of Guiana (1598) : " On that branch which is called 



126 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

Caora are a nation of people, whose heads appear not above 
their shoulders. . . . They are reported to have eyes in their 
shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts," 

48. Each putter-out of five for one. An elliptical phrase 
meaning " each putter out of a principal for a return of five 
pounds on €ach pound left in deposit." Travelers in the 
Elizabethan age, and afterwards, at the beginning of a jour- 
ney, used to deposit a sum with a financial agent, who kept the 
money if they died on the journey, and paid them five pounds 
for every one if they returned safely. This is made evident 
by a passage in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour^ 
ii. 1, where Puntarvalo says, " I do intend ... to travel . . . 
and I am determined to put forth some five thousand pound 
to be paid me, five for one, upon the return of myself, my 
wife, and my dog from the Turk's court in Constantinople. 
If all or either of us miscarry in the journey, 't is gone; if 
we be successful, why, there will be five and twenty thousand 
pound to entertain time withal." 

53-56. whom . . . you. On the supplementary pronoun, 
of. Abbott, § 249. 

64. to instrument. Cf. note on ii. 1. 75. 

55-56. The natural order of the words would be : " (destiny) 
hath caused the never-surfeited sea to belch you up." 

60. proper selves, their own selves. 

fellows. Cf. note on iii. 1. 84. 

62. Of whom. For the use of whom with a neuter antecedent, 
cf. Abbott, § 264. 

64. still-closing, constantly closing over the wounds made 
in them. 

65. dowle, equivalent to down. Steevens quotes from a 
small book. Humane Industry, or a History of most Manual 
Arts, 1661, the following illustrative passages : " The wool- 
bearing trees in ^Ethiopia, which Virgil speaks of . . . are 
not such trees as have a certain wool or dowl upon the outside 
of them, as the small cotton; but short trees that bear a ball 
upon the top, pregnant with wool. There is a certain shell- 
fish in the sea, called Pinna, that bears a mossy dowl or wool, 
whereof cloth was spun and made." A writer in Notes and 
Queries, 1859, mentions that in Gloucestershire the plumage 
of young goslings, before they have feathers, is called dowle. 

66. like, similarly. 

67. massy, massive. 

71. requit. Cf. note on i. 2. 31. 



Scene One] NOTES 127 

77-78. worse than any death Can be at once, worse than 
any instantaneous death can be. 

79. whose. The antecedent is powers in 1. 73. 

80. falls should be plural after " wraths which," but is 
attracted into the singular by the intervening substantive 
" isle." Cf. Abbott, § 412. 

82. clear, innocent, pure. 

83-86. " You have omitted no part of my instructions as to 
what you were to say, and similarly my subordinate agents 
have carried out with lifelike exactitude and rare attention 
their separate functions." 

92. whom they suppose is drown' d. A confusion of two 
constructions, " whom they suppose to be drowned " and 
** who, they suppose, is drowned." Cf. Abbott, § 410. 

93. mine. For the use of mine as a pronominal adjective 
before its noun, cf. Abbott, § 238. 

96. it, my crime against Prospero. Alonso alludes in this 
indefinite way to his former wickedness, as Miranda, in iii. 1. 
80, refers to her love. 

99. did bass my trespass, proclaimed my guilt in its deep 
bass roar. 

102. But one fiend at a time, let there be but one fiend at a 
time. 

ACT IV — SCENE 1 

This scene is occupied principally by the elaborate masque, 
the " vanity " of his " art," which Prospero causes to be 
performed in honor of Ferdinand and Miranda. The length 
of this masque, and the prominence given to it in the very 
center of the play, whose action it delays at a critical juncture, 
leave no doubt that The Tempest, like A Midsummer Nighfs 
Dream, was intended to celebrate the wedding of some high- 
born personagesr^/The underlying conception of the masque 
is the fruitfulness oi nature culminating in the fruitfulness of a 
prosperous wedlock. Thus " the suggestions of nature . . . 
scattered broadcast through every scene are gathered to a 
climax " in this masque, " which has for its function to pour 
forth a prodigal accumulation of nature-wealth. In form it is 
a meeting of mythical deities ; but the language presents them 
as embodiments of the different elements of landscape " (Moul- 
ton).~ The second part of the scene shows the ignominious 
collapse of the conspiracy against Prospero, though Caliban 



nS THE TEMPEST [Act Foub 

proves his superiority to his companions by remaining firm to 
the original aim of the plot, while they let themselves be turned 
aside by the prospect of some paltry plunder. 

3. third. This is the Ff reading, and there is no sufficient 
reason for changing it. Prospero probably uses the word only 
vaguely to express the thought that Miranda forms a main 
portion of his very being. Furness, somewhat strangely, sup- 
ports Capell's view that the phrase has a more definite meaning, 
the three thirds of Prospero's life being his realm, his daughter, 
and himself. It has been suggested that third is a variant 
spelling of thrid or thread, and Hawkins quotes from the comedy 
of Mucedorus (1619) : "To cut in twaine the twisted third of 
life." But the reading is doubtful. Many editors have 
adopted the reading thrid, which means a fibre, and which 
would signify here " one of my heart-strings." 

4. who. Cf. note on i. 2. 80. 

7. strangely, rarely, wonderfully. 

9. boast her off: the reading of the later Ff, and of prac- 
tically all editors. The phrase boast off is otherwise unknown 
in Shakespeare's writings, and it is just possible, as Furness 
suggests, that the reading of F 1, " boast her of," is merely a 
transposition for "boast of her." But the accepted reading is 
by far the more expressive of the two. 

13. gift. The Ff read guest, which may be right, as having 
reference to Ferdinand. 

16. sanctimonious, here used in the sense of " holy." 

18. aspersion, in the literal sense of " sprinkling " as of dew. 

21. weeds : instead of the flowers with which the bridal bed 
was strewn. 

22-23. take heed. As Hymen's lamps shall light you: 
take heed, and act only as Hymen's lamps by their light shall 
give you authority to do. Another explanation, involving an 
unusual but not unprecedented use of as = so that, is " do 
nothing to prevent Hymen's lamps lighting you." But Ferdi- 
nand in his reply does not seem to anticipate that, in any case, 
Prospero would prevent his marriage. Elze is probably right 
in his suggestion that lamps is a misprint for lamp, the s in- 
truding into the text by anticipation of the initial s in shall. 
Hymen, the god of marriage, has only one lamp, or " torch,'* 
as it is called in 1. 97. 

26. opportune : the accent is on the second syllable. 

suggestion : cf . note on ii. 1. 288. j 



Scene One] NOTES 129 

27. genius. A comparison of the chief passages in which 
the word genius is used by Shakespeare shows that it is em- 
ployed in the sense of a " spirit " conceived of as resident 
within a man, and constituting, in the strict sense, his per- 
sonality. Cf. Julius CcBsar, ii. 1. 63-67 : 

** Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
And the first motion, all the interim is 
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream. 
The Genius and the mortal instruments 
Are then in council," 

i.e. the spirit and the bodily powers with which it works are 
holding debate together. Cf. also Macbeth, iii. 1. 55-57 : 

" under him 
My Genius is rebuked ; as, it is said, 
Mark Antony's was by Caesar." 

This passage is explained by Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3. 18-22 : 

" Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side : 
Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is 
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable. 
Where Caesar's is not ; but near him, thy angel 
Becomes a fear, as being o'erpowered." 

Here we see that the " spirit " or " genius " is indifferently 
spoken of as " demon " or " angel." The spirit that has taken 
lodging in human abode may be good or evil (cf . i. 2. 458-459), 
and a variation of the idea represents two spirits or " genii " 
conflicting for the empire over the man. Hence the reference 
here to " Our worser genius," with which we may compare 
Sonnet cxliv : 

*' Two loves I have of comfort and despair. 
Which like two spirits do suggest me still. 
The better angel is a man right fair. 
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill." 

can, can make. 

30. Phoebus' steeds, a reference to the myth that the sun 
god drove around the world in a four-horsed car. 

founder' d, crippled and unable to move. " Foundering 
coraeth when a horse is heated and taketh thereon a suddaine 



130 THE TEMPEST] [Act Four 

cold which striketh downe into his legs, and taking away the 
vse and feeling thereof." — Topsell, The History of Foure- 
footed Beasts (1608). 

31. spoke, spoken. Cf. Abbott, § 343. 

33. What : used as a mode of calling. 

37. rabble : used of the company of " meaner ministers," 
but without any contemptuous sense. 

41. vanity, illusion. 

42. Presently, immediately, which is its usual sense in E. E. 
54. good night your vow, farewell to your vow. 

56. liver : supposed to be the seat of passion. 

57. corollary, a supernumerary (see Glossary). Prospero 
bids Ariel bring more spirits than are necessary rather than 
have one too few. 

60-138. The merits of this masque have been very variously 
estimated. Capell speaks of it as written " against the grain 
seemingly, being weak throughout, faulty in rhymes, and 
faulty in its mythology; matters not within the province of 
Ceres, such as ' sheep ' and ' vines,' are attributed to her.'* 
Hartley Coleridge asserts that " there is not much either of 
melody or meaning in this masque. Prospero, when his spell 
enforced attendance of the spirits, should have furnished them 
with smoother couplets and sager discourse." The German 
critic Hense, on the other hand, declares that " the masque 
of the goddesses in The Tempest is pre-eminent for its lyric 
beauty." This is an extravagantly favorable verdict, for 
Iris' opening speech, with its detailed catalogue of country prod- 
ucts and scenes, is undeniably prosaic. But the lines describ- 
ing Venus and her son (87-101) contain some charming images, 
and are entirely worthy of Shakespeare's pen. In any case 
it is unwarrantable to assign the masque to another hand, 
as some critics have done, because the couplets lack smooth- 
ness. On the contrary, this is an argument for its genuineness. 
The rhyming passages in Shakespeare's later plays are few, 
but where they occur they show, as here, the same character- 
istics as mark his blank verse of the same period. We have 
" run-on " instead of " end-stopped " lines, and more care for 
energy and incisiveness of expression than for sweetness of 
melody. 

61. vetches : spelled " fetches " in the Ff. This is still the 
common provincial pronunciation of the word. 

63. stover " is the term now applied to the coarser hay made 
of clover and artificial grasses, which is kept for the winter 



Scene One] NOTES 131 

feed of cattle. ... In the sixteenth century the word was 
used apparently to denote any kind of winter fodder except 
grass hay. (Illustrations follow from Tusser and Drayton.) 
The word is derived from the Old French, estavoir, estovoir, 
estouvier, or estouvoir, which denotes, according to Roquefort 
{Glossaire de la langue Romane), ' provision de tout ce qui est 
necessaire ' " (Wright). 

64. banks, either river banks or, more probably, mounds 
between the " flat meads," which would naturally be in the 
care of Ceres. 

pioned and twilled. The explanations of these obscure 
terms fall into two main groups. (1) They refer to the flowers 
or grasses growing on the banks. Pioned is interpreted as 
being the same word as peonied, i.e. covered with peonies. 
The peony is not suited to make " chaste crowns " for nymphs, 
but T. S. Baynes asserted on the authority of " a clergyman 
long resident in the north of V/arwick " that the marsh mari- 
gold was provincially known as the peony. Doubt has, how- 
ever, been thrown on the correctness of this assertion. Twilled 
was declared by Baynes to refer to the sedges on a river's 
bank, twills being a provincial word for reeds. But, though 
twills is given by Ray as equivalent to " quills " or reeds for 
winding yarn, there is no evidence of its being used for " reeds " 
in the sense of a plant. Another interpretation of twilled 
brims is that it means banks fringed with thickly-matted grass, 
resembling twilled cloth in which the cords appear twisted 
closely together. (2) The words more probably do not refer 
to flowers at all, for the banks seem to be spoken of as " pioned 
and twilled " before April " betrims " them. In this case some 
agricultural operations are alluded to. Pioning is used by 
Spenser in the sense of digging: Faerie Queene, ii. 10 : 

" with painful pyonings 
From sea to sea he heaped a mighty mound." 

Twilled may be connected with the French touiller, to begrime 
or besmear, and the passage, according to Henley, refers to 
*' the repairing of the brims of banks, which have given way 
by opening the trenches from whence the banks themselves 
were at first raised, and facing them up afresh with the mire 
those trenches contain." 

66. broom-groves. The phrase presents a diflSculty be- 
cause " grove " does not seem applicable to a shrub like 



132 THE TEMPEST [Act Four 

" broom." But we may compare the place-name, Bromsgrove. 
Hanmer conjectured " brown." 

67. dismissed bachelor, rejected suitor. 

68. lass-lorn, forsaken of his mistress. 

pole-clipt vineyard, the vineyard in which the vines are 
twined about the poles. Cli'p means " twine around " or 
*' embrace," and the passive form of the participle is here used 
actively. 

74. peacocks, the birds that draw the chariot of Juno. 

85. freely, liberally. 

estate, bestow. 

89. dusky Dis: Pluto, who carried off Ceres' daughter 
Proserpina. 

93. Paphos : a town in Cyprus, which contained a celebrated 
temple of Venus. 

97. Renaissance Englishmen were well versed in the looks 
and symbols of the classic gods, who often appeared in the 
masques. Hymen always with his torch. " On the other 
hand entered Hymen, the god of marriage, in a saffron coloured 
robe, his under vesture white, his sockes yellow, a yellow veile 
of silke on his left arm, his head crowned with roses and mar- 
joram, in his right hand a torch of pine-tree " (Jonson's Hy- 
menod). 

99. waspish-headed, irritable. 

100. sparrows. The sparrow was sacred to Venus; hence 

its association with the goddess and with Cupid in literature. 

Chaucer in The Parlement of Foules calls the sparrow " Venus' 

son." In Lyly's song " Cupid and my Campaspe," the god of 

love 

"... stakes his quiver, bow and arrows. 

His mother's doves and team of sparrows." 

110. plenty, plentiful. Note the imperfect rhyme with 1, 111. 

114-115. Compare with these lines, where again Shake- 
speare surprises the reader by an imperfect rhyme, Spenser's 
Faerie Queene,- iii. 6. 42 : 

" There is continuall spring, and harvest there 
Continuall, both meeting at one time." 

119-120. hold To think, so bold as to think. 

121. confines, limits to which they are conjBned. 

123. wonder d, able to perform wonders. Cf. Abbott, § 294. 

and a wise. Rowe conjectured " wife," which was adopted 



Scene One] NOTES 133 

by Pope. But Ferdinand is for the time absorbed in wonder 
at Prospero's magic power ; moreover, " wife " without any 
epithet sounds bald after the enthusiastic outburst that pre- 
cedes. 

124. Sweet, now. These words would seem more naturally 
addressed to Miranda, and it has been suggested that they 
are a continuation of Ferdinand's speech, which is interrupted 
by Prospero's " silence ! " But probably no change is neces- 
sary; Shakespeare in the Sonnets addresses his young friend 
" Will " as " sweet love." 

126. to do, to be done. Cf. Abbott, § 405. 

128. windring : the reading of the Ff . Probably " wind- 
ing " or " wand'ring " is correct. 

130. crisp, curled with the ripple of the water. Cf. the 
" crisp head " of the Severn in 1 Henry IV, i. 3. 110. 

138. footing, dancing. 

142. avoid, begone. 

144. works him strongly, affects him powerfully. 

145. distempefd, discomposed. 

146. sort, manner. 

150-156. On the likeness between these lines and a passage 
from Stirling's Tragedy of Darius, cf. Introduction, p, vi. 

156. a rack. The phrase, the rack, derived from O.E. rec, 
smoke (cf. German ranch, smoke), is used of the filmy upper 
clouds. Cf. Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: " The winds in the upper 
region (^ which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, 
and are not perceived below) pass without noise." Cf., too, 
Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 9-10 : 

" even with a thought 
The rack dislimns." 

A rack, however, to signify a single, small cloud, has not been 
found, though the plural, " the rackes," occurs in a poem of 
1608, and Lydgate uses the phrase " every rak." The use of 
the word here seems to be suggested by the unsubstantial 
pageant of the marriage masque which has just faded. In 
Ben Jonson's Hymenoei, a marriage masque introducing 
Juno and Iris, the upper part of the scene is described as being 
" all of clouds, and made artificially to swell and ride like the 
rack." Evidently similar machinery was used here, and the 
poet applies the word rack to clouds as a constituent part of 
the machinery of the pageant. " Mark " (as one critic has 



134 THE TEMPEST [Act Foub 

interpreted it), " says Prospero, the little pageant that has 
just passed before your eyes, and is now vanished into thin 
air. It is thus that the great Pageant of the world shall it- 
self finally be no more; not even the minutest portion of this 
vast machinery shall escape the general destruction — not a 
rach, not an atom shall remain." Malone and Dyce, on ac- 
count of the difficulty involved in a rack, conjectured that 
rack was a misspelling of wrack or wreck, and that Prospero 
asserts that not only will the cloud-capped towers, etc., dis- 
solve, but that their very wrecks or ruins will vanish from 
human sight. This interpretation, however, is unconvincing. 

157. on, of. 

158. rounded, either *' surrounded " or " finished off with," 
" completed." 

163. heating, agitated. 

164. with a thought, as quick as thought. 

/ thank thee, Ariel, i.e. for the masque so skillfully managed. 

165. cleave to, follow closely. 

166. meet with, counteract, check. 

167. presented, represented, or, more probably, introduced 
into the masque. 

177. Advanced their eyelids. Cf. note on i. 2. 408. 

178. As, as if. Cf. Abbott, § 107. 
180. goss, gorse. 

182. filthy -mantled, covered with a filthy scum. Cf. King 
Lear, iii. 4. 138-139 : " drinks the green mantle of the standing 
pool." 

184. feet. This, the reading of the Ff, does not give a very 
satisfactory sense, but nothing is gained by the proposed 
emendations of " feat " or " fear." The passage may mean 
that the filth at the bottom of the pool was stirred up by their 
dancing, and rose, smelling vilely, above their feet. 

189. Nurture, training. 

190. taken, bestowed. 

192. cankers, grows corrupt. With the passage we may 
compare Essex' ungallant speech about Queen Elizabeth : 
" that she grew old and canker' d, and that her mind was be- 
come as crooked as her carcase." 

193. Even to roaring, till they roar. 

line may be explained in two ways : (1) lime tree, in which 
case Prospero refers to a tree of " the line-grove which weather- 
fends " his cell; cf. v. 1. 10, where many editors have altered 
the Ff reading to " lime-grove " ; but line was the more usual 



Scene One] NOTES 135 

form of the word. (2) Clothes-line, the alternative interpreta- 
tion, is, d priori, less probable, for it is incongruous to suppose 
that such an appliance of civilization should be hanging out- 
side of Prospero's cell. Yet it must be allowed that this 
interpretation gives more point to Stephano's jests in 1. 241- 
245. The words " now is the jerkin under the line " are more 
applicable in the case of a cord than of a tree, and the joke 
about the jerkin losing its hair and proving " a bald jerkin " 
seems to refer to the fact that clothes-lines in Shakespeare's 
time were usually made of hair. 

200-201. played the Jack. Either " played Jack with the 
lantern," and so beguiled us into the mire ; or " played the 
knave or rogue." Cf. Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1. 185-187 : 
" do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good 
harefinder? " 

206. hoodwink, blindfold; hence here-cover, put out of 
sight. 

218. /, for me. Cf. Abbott, § 209. 

222-223. The allusion is to the ballad containing the stanza : 

" King Stephen was a worthy peere. 
His breeches cost him but a crowne. 
He held them sixpence all too deere ; 
Therefore he calld the taylor Lowne.'* 

231. Lefs alone. This is the reading of the Ff, and if cor- 
rect, has the sense of " let's along." Staunton quotes from 
Beaumont and Fletcher's Loyal Subject, iii. 5, a passage where 
alone is used in the sense of along, and where it cannot be a 
misprint, as it rhymes with gone. A conjectural reading is 
" Let it alone," repeating the words in 1. 224. 

235-238. These words contain a complex series of puns : 
(1) Now is the jerkin under the line is probably a reference to 
the custom at tennis of staking the wager under the line, so 
as to be taken by the winner. Thus, as Stephano advances 
toward the jerkin, he cries that it now hangs up ready for a 
claimant; then as he utters the second now he pulls the gar- 
ment off the line and makes the joke about its losing its hair, 
explained in the note on 1. 193. (2) Under the line is also a 
slang phrase for " hanging by the neck," as is shown by Staun- 
ton's quotation from An Elegy upon Edward Dun, Esq., the 
Citie's Common Hangman, who Dyed Naturally in his Bed, 
1663: 



136 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

" It was (oh. Death !) an unjust thing. 
Thou should'st deny him his own swing ; 
Sure, sure, thou hadst some great designe. 
Or else thou 'adst took him under-line." 

(3) There may be a further reference to the nautical phrase 
under the line, and the fevers often contracted there, which 
cause loss of hair. 

239. by line and level, according to rule, methodically; a 
metaphor taken from carpentry. The phrase is introduced 
merely as another pun upon " line." 

244. pass of pate, sally of wit. 

246. lime, bird-lime. As the punning upon " line " is still 
being continued, " line " and " lime " must evidently have 
been convertible forms in this, as in other senses of the 
word. 

249. barnacles, geese that were supposed to breed out of 
certain shellfish which grew upon trees. 

250. foreheads villanous low. A low forehead was counted 
a deformity in Shakespeare's time. 

261. aged cramps. Cf. note on i. 2. 369. 
264. Lie. Rowe's correction for the Ff reading lies, which 
may, however, be supported on the analogy of i. 1. 15. 



ACT V — SCENE 1 

Prospero, having all his enemies at his mercy, makes use of 
his magic power for the last time, before he lays it aside for- 
ever. He releases them from the trance into which they have 
been plunged, and extends to them degrees of pardon (cf. 
Introduction, pp. xxi-xxii), while Gonzalo is embraced with 
loving words. Thereupon follow universal reunion and restora- 
tion. Ferdinand, with his newly-won bride, is given back to 
his father's arms. The Master and the Boatswain rejoin their 
fellow-voyagers and report that the ship, which had been 
given up for lost, is safe in " all her trim." Caliban and his 
allies are driven in to be claimed by their respective masters, 
and to be forgiven on condition of penitence and surrender 
of stolen goods. Ariel is restored to his home, the air; and 
finally Prospero strains his eyes across the sea toward his 
Milan, and beyond that, toward his grave. 

2. crack not. This probably refers to the magic bonds 



Scene One] NOTES 137 

which Prospero weaves around his victims. Thus he after- 
ward declares (1. 31) " my charms I'll break." 

3. Goes upright with his carriage, marches on erect, not 
bending under his load. 

10. line-grove. Cf. note on iv. 1. 193. 
weather-fends, protects from the weather. 

11. till your release, till released by you. 

16. Him, for he. Cf. Abbott, § 208. 

17. strongly works 'em. Cf. iv. 1. 144. 
21. a touch, a power of sensibility. 

23-24. relish all as sharply Passion as they. The punctua- 
tion of F 1 and F 2, putting a comma after sharply, makes 
passion a verb (cf. Venus and Adonis, 1059 : " Dumbly she 
passions " ; and Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 172 : " 'Twas 
Ariadne passioning "). The words then mean " feel joy 
just as keenly, and am as much moved with sorrow as they." 
F 3 and F 4 omit the comma after " sharply," thus treating 
" passion " as a noun governed by " relish." 

33-50. This passage has so remarkable a likeness in its 
phraseology to Medea's incantation in Golding's translation 
of Ovid's Metamorphoses, that it must have been partly modeled 
on it. Wright quotes the following passage from the edition of 
1603 : 

** Ye Ayres and Windes : ye Elues of Hilles, of Brookes, of 

Woods alone. 
Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye euerychone. 
Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at 

the thing) 
I have compelled streames to run cleane backward to their 

spring. 
By charmes I make the calme Seas rough, and make the rough 

Seas plaine. 
And couer all the Skie with Cloudes and chase them thence 

againe. 
By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers iaw. 
And from the bowels of the Earth both stones and trees doe 

draw. 
Whole woods and Forestes I remoue : I make the Mountaines 

shake. 
And euen the Earth it selfe to grone and fearefuUy to quake. 
I call up dead men from their graues: and thee O lightsome 

Moone, 



138 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

I darken oft, though beaten brasse abate thy peril soone. 
Our Sorcerie dimmes the Morning faire, and darkes ye Sun at 
Noone." 

37. green sour ringlets : the circles of a deeper green than 
the surrounding grass, and bitterer in taste, which are found 
in meadows, and were popularly supposed to be caused by 
the dancing of fairies. " These," says Miss Porter, " are 
now commonly attributed to growths of mushrooms circling 
a space and enriching it with their nitrogen, which causes the 
grass to sprout more luxuriantly there." Note 11. 39-40. 

41. Weak masters, weak adepts in magical powers. 

43. azured, azure. Cf. Abbott, § 294. 

47. spurs, the roots which project. 

51. required, asked for. 

59. unsettled fancy, distorted imagination. 

60. boiVd. The Ff read boile. For the use of the word in 
this connection cf. Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 64-65 : " Would any 
but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt 
this weather.? " 

63. sociable to, in sympathy with. 
show, appearance. 

64. Fall. Cf. ii. 1. 296, note. 
fellowly, companionable. 

67. ignorant, producing ignorance. 

71. Home, thoroughly. Cf. Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 148: 
" Accuse him home and home." 
76. remorse, pity. 
81. reasonable shore, the shore of reason. 

85. disease me, strip off my disguise. 

86. Milan, Duke of Milan. Cf. i. 2. 109. 
90. when owls do cry, i.e. at night. 

92. summer, changed by Theobald into " sunset," on the 
ground that bats do not migrate with the close of summer. 
But Shakespeare is here dealing with fairy-lore, not with 
natural history, and the idea of spirits flying after summer is 
akin to that in A Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 101 : " Trip 
we after the night's shade." 

102. drink the air, an analogoijs expression to " devour the 
way." 

103. Or ere. Cf. note on i. 2. 11. 
112. trifle, phantom. 

abuse, deceive. 



Scene One] NOTES 139 

117. An if this be at all, if this have any real existence. 

118. Thy dukedom I resign. Antonio had made Milan a 
fief of Naples, and Alonso herewith disclaims the sovereign 
rights he had thus acquired. 

119. my wrongs, the wrongs I have done. 

120. noble friend, Gonzalo. 

123-124. taste Some subtilties o' the isle. Taste used in 
the sense of " experience " probably suggested subtilties, which 
besides meaning, as here, " deceptions," denoted devices in 
pastry. Wright quotes from Fabyan's account of the feast 
at the coronation of Katharine, queen of Henry V : " And 
a sotyltye called a Pellycane sytting on hir nest with he 
byrdes." 

128. Justify, prove. 

129. No. This is a curiously curt answer to Sebastian's re- 
mark, which is, moreover, supposed to be an " aside " not 
overheard by Prospero. A plausible emendation is Now, 
used as the opening of the address to Antonio. 

139. / am woe for 't, I am sorry for it. Cf. Abbott, § 230. 
145-146. *' As great to me as it is recent ; and to make the 
keen loss bearable I have much weaker means." 

154. do so much admire, are so much astonished. 

155. devour their reason, refuse to believe what their reason 
tells them. 

156. do offices of truth, perform their functions truthfully. 
164. relation for a breakfast, a short story to be told at 

breakfast. 

Playing at chess. This introduction of chess into the en- 
chanted island, especially as Shakespeare nowhere else directly 
mentions the game, is so curious that attempts have been 
made to assign some special reason for it. Steevens thought 
that Shakespeare borrowed the idea from the romance of Sir 
Huon de Bordeaux, where the hero and heroine engage in the 
same pastime. Allen ingeniously conjectures that he made 
the Neapolitan prince and Miranda play chess because Naples 
was at that time the chief center of the game. 

174. a score. Used either in the ordinary sense of " twenty," 
or, more probably, in that of " a stake." 

you should wrangle. " The usage of ' should ' and ' would ' 
in this sentence becomes like our own by a very slight change : 
* for a score of kingdoms should you wrangle I would call it 
fair play ' " (Wright). 

181-184. Notice Miranda's " child-like naivete of admira- 



140 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

tion " (Moulton) on first beholding a company of her fellow 
creatures. 

205. Was Milan thrust from Milan? Was Prospero, the 
Duke of Milan, thrust out of his Duchy? 

208-213. In these lines Gonzalo expounds, with pregnant 
brevity, the principle of loss and restitution which underlies 
so many incidents in the play. 

214. still, always. 

216. IS. Cf. note on i. 1. 17-18. 

218. blasphemy, for blasphemer. 

221. safely found, found safe. 

223. but three glasses since. If we compare this with 
Alonso's statement in 1. 136, we see that the boatswain's 
" glass " is meant to be an hour-glass. Brinsley Nicholson, 
however {New ShaJcspere Society's Transactions, 1880-1882), 
quotes from The Seaman's Grammar, by Capt. John Smith 
(1627), the following words : " eight glasses, or foure houres, 
which is a watch." This shows that the seaman's glass in 
Shakespeare's time, as now, was one of ^a//-an-hour, not a 
full hour. The technical mistake thus made proves, accord- 
ing to Nicholson, that Shakespeare never was at sea. But 
this is too weak a foundation to support so momentous a 
conclusion, especially in the face of much internal evidence 
tending the other way. 

224. tight, free from leaks. 

230. of sleep, through sleep. Cf . Abbott, § 168. 
238. Capering to eye her, dancing with joy at beholding 
her. 

on a trice, in a moment (see Glossary). 

242. maze, intricate, bewildering puzzle of paths. 

244. conduct, conductor. 

246. infest, vex. 

247. pick'd, well-selected. 

248. singled, alone ; referring either to " you " or " I," 
probably the former. 

resolve you, give you an explanation. 

249. Which to you shall seem probable. The antecedent 
to " which " is Prospero's explanation, implied in " I'll resolve 
you." 

every. The adjectives all, each, both, every, other are some- 
times interchanged in E. E. Cf. Abbott, § 12. 
255. odd. Cf. note on i. 2. 223. 
267-258. bully-monster. With this slang use of bully as a 



Scene One] NOTES 141 

jovial term of address, cf. " bully Hercules " and " bully-rook '* 
in The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

258. coragio. F 1 has corasio, which may be right, con- 
sidering that a man as drunk as Stephano might easily fail 
to repeat a foreign word correctly, even though his tongue 
had managed it once. 

266. Is a plain fish. For this description of Caliban, cf . ii. 
2. 25-30. 

267. badges. Household servants, like Stephano and Trin- 
culo, usually wore on their arms, as part of their livery, silver 
badges whereon the shield of their master was engraved. 

269-270. one so strong That could control the moon. For 
other examples of so followed by the relative that, cf. Abbott, 
§279. 

271. deal in her command without her power, either " exer- 
cise her influence without being empowered to do so," or " exer- 
cise her influence beyond or outside of her sphere." For the 
latter use of without, Wright compares 2 Corinthians, x. 13: 
" But we will not boast of things without our measure." 

279. reeling ripe, so intoxicated as to be ready to reel. Cf. 
Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 274 : " The king was weeping-ripe 
for a good word." 

280. gilded 'em, made them drunk. There is probably a 
reference to the aurum 'potabile, drinkable gold, of the alche- 
mists ; or the reference may be to the effect of liquor in making 
the face glow. 

284. / shall not fear fly-blowing. Trinculo, punning on 
the word " pickle," makes this statement, because pickling 
meat preserved it from *' fly-blowing." Cf. iii. 1. 63. 

289. a strange thing as, as strange a thing as. The first 
as in a comparison is often omitted. 

298. bestow, stow away. 

305. accidents gone by, events that have happened. Cf. I. 
250 above. 

310. retire me. For other examples of verbs used by Shake- 
speare reflexively, but now intransitive, see Abbott, § 296. 



THE EPILOGUE 

" In the Epilogue, which was written perhaps by Shakespeare, 
perhaps by some one acquainted with his thoughts, Prospero 
in his character of a man, no longer a potent enchanter, petitions 



142 THE TEMPEST [Act Five 

the spectators of the theater for two things, pardon and free- 
dom. It would be straining matters to discover in this Epilogue 
profound significances; and yet in its playfulness it curiously 
falls in with the moral purport of the whole. Prospero, the 
pardoner, implores pardon. Shakespeare was aware — whether 
such be the significance (aside — for the writer's mind) of this 
Epilogue or not — that no life is ever lived which does not need 
to receive as well as to render forgiveness " (Dowden). 

Many critics have doubted whether this Epilogue is by 
Shakespeare, chiefly because of what Grant White calls " the 
miserable and eminently un-Shakespearian rhythm." This 
critic especially falls foul of the sense-pauses in the middle of 
the line, e.g. 3 and 13. But as has already been said in discussing 
the Masque (cf. note on iv. 1. 60-138), these run-on lines and 
unrhythmical pauses are just what we should expect from 
Shakespeare at this period, and are no argument against the 
authenticity of the Epilogue. 

10. An invitation to the audience to applaud. Noise was 
supposed to dissolve a spell. 

16. prayer, probably suggested by the custom, prevalent 
at the time, of concluding the play by a prayer offered up for 
the sovereign. 

18. Mercy itself, the merciful God. 

frees, procures pardon from. 



APPENDIX A 

THE PREFACE AND PROLOGUE TO DRYDEN AND 
DAVENANT'S TEE TEMPEST OR THE 
ENCHANTED ISLAND 

Preface 

The writing of Prefaces to Plays, was probably invented by some 
very ambitious Poet, who never thought he had done enough : Per- 
haps by some Ape of the French Eloquence, which uses to make a 
business of a Letter of Gallantry, an examen of a Farce; and, in 
short, a great pomp and ostentation of words on every trifle. This 
is certainly the Talent of that Nation, and ought not to be invaded 
by any other. They do that out of gaiety, which would be an im- 
position upon us. 

We may satisfie our selves with surmounting them in the Scene, 
and safely leave them those trappings of writing, and flourishes of 
the Pen, with which they adorn the borders of their Plays, and 
which are indeed no more than good Landskips to a very indifferent 
Picture. I must proceed no farther in this Argument, lest I run my 
seK beyond my excuse for writing this. Give me leave therefore 
to tell you. Reader, that I do it not to set a value on anything I 
have written in this Play, but out of gratitude to the memory of Sir 
William Davenant, who did me the honour to join me with him in 
the alteration of it. 

It was originally ShaJcespear s : a Poet for whom he had particu- 
larly a high veneration, and whom he first taught me to admire. 
The Play it self had formerly been acted with success in the Black- 
Fryers: and our Excellent Fletcher had so great a value for it, that 
he thought fit to make use of the same Design, not much varied, a 
second time. Those who have seen his Sea-Voyage, may easily 
discern that it was a Copy of Shakespear's Tempest: the Storm, the 
Desart Island, and the Woman who had never seen a Man, are all 
sufficient Testimonies of it. But Fletcher was not the only Poet 
who made use of Shakespears Plot : Sir John Suckling, a profess'd 
admirer of our Author, has foUow'd his footsteps in his Goblins; his 
Begmella being an open imitation of Shakespears Miranda; and 

143 



144 APPENDIX A 

his Spirits, though counterfeit, yet are copied from Ariel. But Sir 
William Davenant, as he was a Man of quick and piercing imagi- 
nation, soon found that somewhat might be added to the design 
of Shakespear, of which neither Fletcher nor Suckling had ever 
thought : and therefore to put the last hand to it, he design'd the 
Counter part to Shakespear s Plot, namely, that of a Man who had 
never seen a Woman ; that by this means those two Characters of 
Innocence and Love might the more illustrate and commend each 
other. This excellent Contrivance he was pleas'd to communicate 
to me, and to desire my assistance in it. I confess, that from the 
very first moment it so pleas'd me, that I never writ anything with 
more dehght. I must likewise do him that justice to acknowledge, 
that my writing received daily his amendments, and that is the 
reason why it is not so faulty, as the rest which I have done, with- 
out the help or correction of so judicious a Friend. The Comical 
part of the Baylors were also of his invention and for the most part 
his writing, as you will easily discover by the Style. In the time 
I writ with him, I had the opportunity to observe somewhat more 
nearly of him than I had formerly done, when I had only a bare 
acquaintance with him : I found him then of so quick a fancy, that 
nothing was propos'd to him on which he could not suddenly pro- 
duce a thought extremely pleasant and surprising : and those first 
thoughts of his, contrary to the old Latine Proverb, were not always 
the least happy. And as his fancy was quick, so likewise were the 
products of it remote and new. He borrowed not of any other ; and 
his imaginations were such as could not easily enter into any other 
Man. His Corrections were sober and judicious : and he corrected 
his own writings much more severely than those of another Man, 
bestowing twice the time and labour in polishing, which he us'd in 
invention. It had perhaps been easie enough for me to have ar- 
rogated more to my self than was my due, in the writing of this 
Play, and to have pass'd by his name with silence in the Pubhcation 
of it, with the same ingratitude which others have us'd to him, 
whose Writings he hath not only corrected, as he hath done this, 
but has had a greater inspection over them, and sometimes added 
whole Scenes together, which may as easily be distinguish'd from 
the rest, as true Gold from counterfeit by the weight. But besides 
the unworthiness of the Action which deterred me from it (there 
being nothing so base as to rob the dead of his reputation) I am 
satisfi'd I could never have receiv'd so much honour, in being 
thought the Author of any Poem, how excellent soever, as I shall 
from the joining my imperfections with the Merit and Name of 
Shakespear and Sir William Davenant. 



APPENDIX A 145 



Prologue 



As when a Tree's cut down, the secret Root 

Lives under ground, and thence new branches shoot : 

So, from old Shakespear's honour'd dust, this day 

Springs up and buds a new reviving Play. 

Shakespear, who (taught by none) did first impart 

To Fletcher Wit, to labouring Johnson Art. 

He, Monarch-like, gave those his Subjects Law, 

And is that Natiu-e which they paint and draw. 

Fletcher reach'd that which on his heights did grow. 

Whilst Johnson crept and gather'd all below. 

This did his Love, and this his Mirth digest : 

One imitates him most, the other best. 

If they have since out- writ all other Men, 

'T is with the drops which fell from Shakespear's pen. 

The Storm which vanish'd on the neighb'ring shore. 

Was taught by Shakespear s Tempest first to roar. 

That Innocence and Beauty which did smile 

In Fletcher, grew on this Enchanted Isle. 

But Shakespear's Magick could not copy'd be. 

Within that Circle none durst walk but he. 

I must confess 't was bold, nor would you now 

That Uberty to vulgar Wits allow. 

Which work by Magick supernatural things : 

But Shakespear's Pow'r is Sacred as a King's. 

Those Legends from old Priesthood were receiv'd. 

And he then writ, as People then believ'd. 

But, if for Shakespear we your grace implore. 

We for our Theatre shall want it more : 

Who by our dearth of Youths are forc'd t'employ 

One of our Women to present a Boy. 

And that's a transformation, you will say. 

Exceeding all the Magick in the Play. 



APPENDIX B 

MRS. F. A. KEMBLE'S ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETA- 
TION OF THE TEMPEST 

Many critics of The Tempest have endeavored to interpret it 
allegorically. Thus Lowell identifies Prospero with the Imagina- 
tion, Ariel with the Fancy, Caliban with the Brute Understanding, 
Miranda with Abstract Womanhood, and Ferdinand with Youth. 
Emile Montegut and Dowden (the former in ail seriousness, the 
latter in a playful exercise of fancy) have traced in the play an 
allegory of the poet's dramatic career (See the Revue des Deux 
Mondes, 1865, and Dowden's Shakspere, His Mind and Art, pp. 
425-427). Less well known is Mrs. F. A. Kemble's interpreta- 
tion, contained in a MS. note in a copy of Hanmer's edition, and 
printed by Furness. 

"The Tempest is my favourite of Shakespeare*s dramas. . . . 
Chiefly I delight in this play, because of the image it presents to my 
mind of the glorious supremacy of the righteous human soul over all 
things by which it is surrounded. Prosper^ is to me the representa- 
tive of wise and virtuous manhood in its true relation to the com- 
bined elements of existence, the physical powers of the external 
world, and the varieties of character with which it comes into 
voluntary, accidental, or enforced contact. — Of the wonderful 
chain of being, of which Caliban is the densest and Ariel the most 
ethereal extreme, Prospero is the middle link. He — the wise and 
good man — is the ruling power, to whom the whole series is sub- 
ject. First, and lowest in the scale, comes the gross and uncouth 
but powerful savage, who represents both the more ponderous and 
unwieldy natural elements (as the earth and water), which the wise 
magician by his knowledge compels to his service; and the brutal 
and animal propensities of the nature of man which he, the type of 
its noblest development, holds in lordly subjugation. — Next follow 
the drunken, ribald, foolish retainers of the king of Naples, whose 
ignorance, knavery, and stupidity represent the coarser attributes 
of those great, unenlightened masses which, in all communities, 
threaten authority by their conjunction with brute force and 
gavage ferocity; and only under the wholesome restraint of a 

146 



APPENDIX B 147 

wise discipline can be gradually admonished into the salutary 
subserviency necessary for their civilization. — Ascending by de- 
grees in the scale, the next group is that of the cunning, cruel, 
selfish, treacherous worldlings, — Princes and Potentates, — the 
peers, in outward circumstances of high birth and breeding, of the 
noble Prosper©, whose villainous policy (not unaided by his own 
dereliction of his duties as a governor in the pursuit of his pleasure 
as a philosopher) triumphs over his fortune, and, through a devilish 
ability and craft, for a time gets the better of truth and virtue in 
his person. — From these, who represent the baser intellectual, as 
the former do the baser sensual, properties of humanity, we ap- 
proach by a most harmonious, moral transition, through the 
agency of the skilfully interposed figure of the kindly gentleman, 
Gonzalo, those charming types of youth and love, — Ferdinand 
and Miranda. — The fervent, chivalrous devotion of the youth, 
and the yielding simplicity and sweetness of the girl, are lovely 
representations of those natural emotions of tender sentiments 
and passionate desire which, watched and guided and guarded by 
the afiPectionate solicitude and paternal prudence of Prospero, are 
pruned of their lavish luxuriance, and supported in their violent 
weakness by the wise will that teaches forbearance and self-control 
as the only price at which these exquisite flowers of existence may 
unfold their blossoms in prosperous beauty and bear their rightful 
harvest of happiness as well as pleasure. — Next in this wonderful 
gamut of being, governed by the sovereign soul of Prospero, come 
the shining figures of the Masque, — beautiful bright apparitions, 
fitly indicating the air, the fire, and all the more smiling aspects 
and subtler forces of nature. These minister with prompt obe- 
dience to the magical behests of science, and, when not toiling in 
appointed service for their great task-master, recreate and refresh 
his senses and his spirit with the ever-varying pageant of this 
beautiful Universe. — Last — highest of all — crowning with a fit- 
ful flame of lambent brightness this poetical pyramid of existence, 
flickers and flashes the beautiful Demon, without whose exquisite 
companionship we never think of the royal magician with his grave 
countenance of command. — Ariel seems to me to represent the 
keenest perceiving intellect, separate from all moral consciousness 
and sense of responsibility. His power and knowledge are in some 
respects greater than those of his master, — he can do what Pros- 
pero cannot, — he lashes up the tempest round the island, — he 
saves the king and his companions from shipwreck, — he defeats 
the conspiracy of Sebastian and Antonio, and discovers the clumsy 
plot of the beast Caliban, — he wields immediate influence over 



148 APPENDIX B 

the elements, and comprehends alike without indignation or sym- 
pathy, — which are moral results, — the sin and suffering of hu- 
manity. Therefore, — because he is only a spirit of knowledge, he 
is subject to the spirit of love, — and the wild, subtle, keen, beau- 
tiful, powerful creature is compelled to serve with mutinous way- 
wardness and unwilling subjection the human soul that pitied and 
rescued it from its harsher slavery to sin, — and which, though 
controlling it with a wise severity to the fulfilment of its duties, 
yearns after it with the tearful eyes of tender human love when its 
wild wings flash away into its newly recovered realm of lawless 
liberty." 



APPENDIX C 

METRE 
1. Blank Verse 

The governing element of verse structure in English is different 
from that in Latin and Greek. In the classical languages quantity 
forms the basis of the prosody; in English its place is taken by 
stress. In O. E. poetry stress and alliteration had been the regulat- 
ing factors ; afterwards, as a general rule, alliteration disappeared, 
except as an ornament, and syllabic equality was substituted, ac- 
companied during the M. E. period by rhyme. The Earl of Surrey, 
in his translation of part of the Mneid, abandoned rhyme and 
introduced blank verse, a sequence of five stressed and five un- 
stressed syllables in rising rhythm {i.e. with the stress on the second 
syllable) without rhyme. This became the normal metrical form 
of the Elizabethan drama, e.g. 

For this', | be sure', | to-night' ] thou shalt' 1 have cramps' (i. 2. 325). 

But a succession of such lines, as is proved by early plays like 
Gorboduc, has a most monotonous effect, and the beauty of Eliza- 
bethan verse is largely due to its variations from this primary type. 
As Shakespeare's command over his instrument increased, he more 
and more indulged in such variations, so that in The Tempest, one 
of his very last plays, there are comparatively few verses in the 
purely normal form. 

2. Normal Variations 

Among the variations there are several which recur regularly, 
and which are not to be regarded as departures from a type, but as 



(a) Stress variation. The classification of syllables into stressed 
and unstressed is not exhaustive, for there are many shades of 
gradation between the unstressed and the strongly stressed. Thus 
a weak or intermediate stress may be substituted for the normal 

149 



150 APPENDIX C 

strong stress by placing a syllable with a very slight natural accent 

in a normally stressed place. 

Put' the wild' wa'ters in this roar', allay' them (i. 2. 2).^ 
And him' he play'd' it for, he needs' will be' (i. 2. 108). 

This variation is very common, but it is exercised under the follow- 
ing limits : 

(1) The weak stress is commonest in the fifth foot, e.g. 

Thy mo'ther was' a piece' of vir'tue, and'' (i. 2. 56). 

(2) There are never more than two weak stresses in a line. 

(3) The two weak stresses rarely come together. 

(4) The loss of weight (except in the fifth foot) is generally made 
up : either the other syllable has also a slight stress, or one of the 
neighboring feet has two stresses, e.g. in the line quoted above. 

Put' the wild' wa'ters in this roar', allay' them. 

(6) Stress inversion. The alternate order of stress and non- 
stress may be within limits inverted, thus changing the rhythm, 
for that foot, from rising to falling. As this causes two stresses to 
come together, and as these can only be pronounced in succession 
when a slight pause intervenes, this inversion commonly coincides 
with a pause in the sense. Hence 

(1) It is commonest in the first, and, after that, in the third 
and fourth feet, e.g. 

Like' a | good' par' | ent, did' | beget' 1 of him' (i. 2. 94). 
Lie there', | my art'. | Wipe' thou | thine eyes' ; | have com'fort 

(i. 2. 25). 
Bore' us 1 some leagues' | to sea' ; | where' they \ prepared' (i. 2. 145). 

(2) It is unusual in the second foot, e.g. 

Farewell', 1 bro'ther ! — | We split', | we split', | we split' ! (i. 1. 66). 

(3) It is very rare in the fifth foot. 

Of Syc I or' ax, | toads', bee' | ties, bats' ] light' on ] you ! (i. 2. 340). 

1 A strongly stressed syllable is marked (') e.g. wa'ters; a lightly stressed 
syllable is marked C) e.g. in. 



APPENDIX C 151 

(4) There are never more than two inversions in a line, and we 
rarely find two inversions together, and never three. 

Instead of a change from rising to falling rhythm, we often get a 
spondaic rhythm, through the two syllables of the foot having an 
approximately equal stress. 

The fresh' 1 springs', brine' ] -pits', bar' | ren place' ] and fer' | tile 

(i. 2. 338). 

(c) Omission of syllables. An unstressed syllable is sometimes 
omitted. This happens especially after a marked pause, thus 
either in the first foot, or after an emphatic monosyllable, often an 
imperative : 

Good' 1 my lord', ] give' me ] thy fav' ] our still' (iv. 1. 203). 

Mir. O', I good sir', | I do'. | 

Pros. I pray' ] thee, mark' ] me (i. 2. 88). 

{d) Extra syllables. An additional unstressed syllable may be 
inserted anywhere in a line. It is commonest immediately before 
a pause, and so is most frequently found at the end of a Hne. These 
feminine endings, as they are sometimes called, were increasingly 
used by Shakespeare throughout his career, and they are most 
frequent in The Tempest, where they amount to 35 per cent. In 
the hands of Fletcher this species of verse "tended to exclude the 
simpler type altogether." The first complete blank verse line in 
The Tempest is in this form, 

The king' | and prince' | at pray' | ers ! let's' | assist' | them (i. 1. 56), 

and numerous instances may be found on every page. 

Within the line the extra syllable usually comes after the 
ccBSura, e.g. 

Obey' I and be' | atten' ] tive. Canst thou' | remem' | ber (i. 2. 38). 

Occasionally there are two extra syllables, but, as a rule, in lines 
which have this appearance, the last syllable but one is almost 
entirely slurred, e.g. 

Was duke | dom large | enough : [ of tem [ poral roy [ alties (i. 2. 110). 

Many of the lines ending with proper names, e.g. Ferdinand, 
Prospero, Antonio, seem to have two extra syllables, but in these 
cases the penultimate syllable is slurred. 



152 APPENDIX C 

(e) Rhyme. Apart from the Masque, the songs, and the Epilogue, 
rhyme is not found in The Tempest, except in the couplet with which 
Ariel closes Act ii, sc. 1. 

3. Occasional Vaeiations 

(a) Omission of stresses. Occasionally one of the five stresses, 
sometimes a whole foot, is omitted in consequence of a pause, e.g. 

Point to 1 rich ends. | v^ — | This my mean task (iii. 1. 4). 

Here the time that would be taken by the pronunciation of the 
omitted foot is filled up by some action of Ferdinand, such as lift- 
ing a log. 

So also in the following passage (ii. 1. 232-235) : 

Seb. Prithee, say on : 

The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim 
A matter from thee, and a birth indeed 
Which throes thee much to yield. | 

Ant. I — ^ I Thus, sur | 

Here the foot omitted in 1. 235 is supplied by a pause caused by 
Antonio's momentary hesitation befo e unfolding his plan. 

These lines, which are irregular specimens of the ordinary iambic, 
are to be carefully distinguished from the short lines of from one to 
four feet, which are interspersed among the five-foot verses. 

(1) Occasionally in the later plays they are "imbedded" in the 
midst of an otherwise normal passage, e.g. 

Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze 
Of the salt deep. 

To run upon the sharp wind of the north (i. 2. 252-254) ; 
and 

And are upon the Mediterranean flote. 

Bound sadly home for Naples, 

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd (i. 2. 234-236). 

(2) Frequently they are used, especially at the end of a speech, 
to give emphasis to declarations : 

And deeper than did ever plummet sound 
I'll drown my book (v. 1. 56-57) ; 
and 

quickly, spirit; 
Thou shalt ere long be free (v. 1. 86-87). 



APPENDIX C 153 

(3) They are used for exclamatory purposes. 

Thus we have exclamations: "All lost! to prayers, to prayers! 
aU lost!" (i. 1. 53-54) ; "Marvellous sweet music!" (iii. 3. 19). 

Addresses. "Ay, sir" (i. 2. 268). 

Orders. "Approach, my Ariel, come" (i. 2. 188); "Come, thou 
tortoise! when?" (i. 2. 316); "No tongue! all eyes! be silent" 
(iv. 1. 59). 

(4) They occur frequently through some interruption of the 
dialogue. Thus a line may be left incomplete because the follow- 
ing speaker has not heard it, e.g. 

Gon. Now, good angels 

Preserve the king. [They wake. 

Alon. Why, how now ? ho, awake ! Why are you drawn ? 

(ii. 1. 306-308) ; 

or converses with a different person than the first speaker, e.g. 

Art. [To Prospero] I . . . return 
Or ere your pulse twice beat. [Exit. 

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement 

(v. 1. 102-104); 
or interrupts the first speaker : 

Seb. But, for your conscience ? 

Ant. Ay, sir; where lies that? if 't were a kibe (ii. 1. 275-276). 

(6) Extra stresses. Conversely there are lines with six stresses. 
These in The Tempest have generally a pause after the third foot, 
and are divided between two speakers, e.g. 

Mir. And yours | it is | against. ] 

Pros. Poor worm, | thou art | infect | ed ! 

(iii. 1. 31) ; 
and 

Alon. And with | him there | lie mud | ded. 
Seb. But one ] fiend at | a time 

(iii. 3. 102). 

4. Apparent Variations 

In addition to the real variations from the normal type of blank 
verse there are a number of apparent variations, due to differences 
of pronunciation between modern and Elizabethan English. These 
may be divided into Accentual and Syllabic. 

(a) Accentual Variations. There has been little change of ac- 



154 APPENDIX C 

centuation in simple words, but in many compounds and derivatives 
the accent in E. E. could be shifted from one syllable to another. 

(1) Germanic Words. Here "the fluctuations arose from the 
compound or derivative being felt, now as a single word (with accent 
usually on the first syllable), now as a group of words, with accent 
on the most important, which was usually not the first." 

Thus we have such varying stresses as mid'night (i. 2. 228), and 
midnight' (i. 2. 128). So in pronominal, adverbial, and prepositional 
compounds : without' (v. 1. 271), with'out (v. 1. 179) ; in'to (iii. 1. 
41), into' (i. 2. 191) ; where'fore (iii. 1. 76), wherefore' (ii. 1. 309). 

In the case of derivatives, e.g. verbs, the stress is generally on 
the root-word, not the prefix : outdare', forgive', believe' ; but 
be'lieve (iii. 3. 24), be'come (v. 1. 19). 

(2) Romance Words. In the M. E. period there was a struggle 
between the Romance and the English system of accentuation, 
ending in the triumph of the latter, which threw the accent on the 
first syllable. But in Mod. E. the influence of Latin has often 
restored the original accent. Shakespeare's tendency is to accent 
the first syllable, but his practice is far from uniform. Thus we 
find: u'tensils (iii. 2. 104); con'tract (iv. 1. 84), but contract' (ii. 
1. 151) ; sup'portabie (v. 1. 145), but impor'tune (ii. 1. 128) and 
oppor'tune (iv. 1. 26). 

(b) Syllabic Variations. There are three principal cases of 
syllabic variations : (1) vowel + consonant, (2) vowel -f- vowel- 
like (i.e. /, m, n, r), (3) vowel + vowel. 

(1) Vowel and Consonant. A vowel may be lost before a con- 
sonant : 

a. At the beginning of a word. 

This especially affected prefixes : 'bout for about (i. 2. 220) ; 
'gins for begins (iii. 3. 106). In v. 1. 7: "How fares j the king | 
and 's follow | ers.? (Con)fined | together," the prefix in confined, 
though written, seems scarcely intended to be pronounced. 

The initial vowel is also very commonly lost in unemphatic 
monosyllables, especially it, e.g. 't is (i. 2. 185), be 't (i. 2. 190). 

b. At the end of a word. 

This belongs chiefly to Shakespeare's later plays, and is especially 
found in the: 

Go make thyself like a nymph o' th' sea (i. 2. 301). 
But that the sea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek (i. 2. 4). 

c. Within a word. 

The unaccented e of the verb and noun inflexions was in the 



APPENDIX C 155 

sixteenth century gradually becoming suppressed, when no sibilant 
preceded, -es (3rd pers. sing.) is always mute, and -es (plural and 
gen. sing.) is only occasionally pronounced in some of the earlier 
plays. Even after a sibilant the -es of the plural and of the gen. 
sing, is often not pronounced, and is occasionally not written. 

Letters should not | be known ; | rich{es), pov l.erty | (ii. 1. 150). 
The fresh | springs, brine- | pits, bar | ren place \ and fer | tile. 

(i. 2. 338). 
Than oth | er •prin \ cess{es) can | that have | more time (i. 2. 173). 

On the other hand, -es is sounded in achSs (see note on i. 2. 370). 
-est (2nd sing.) and -eth (3rd sing.) are practically always con- 
tracted in the later plays, e.g. 

Shrug'st thou, malice ? 
If thou neglect'st or dost unwilHngly (i. 2. 367-368). 

-est in the superlative is often retained, but it is six times contracted 
in The Tempest. 

-ed (psist tense and part.) shows much variety, but the contracted 
form is the commoner. 

d. In the last but one syllable. An unaccented vowel is sometimes 
lost before a consonant in the middle of a word of more than two 
syllables: e.g. diligent^ (iii. 1. 42), business (i. 2. 255). 

(2) Vowel and Vowel-like. The letters I, m, n, and r have been 
given the name of "vowel-likes," because they can exercise the 
double function of a vowel or a consonant. 

a. Thus, one of these letters by passing from its consonant to its 
vowel value may form a new syllable. This is much commoner in 
earlier than in later plays, e.g. 

They vanish'd strangely.^ No matter, since (iii. 3. 40). 

b. By passing from its vowel to its consonant value the "vowel- 
like" may cause the loss of a syllable, e.g. 

brother and yours (v. 1. 12), (brothe | r-and) ; mis'shapen knave 
(v. 1. 268), (mis-shape-n (kn)ave) ; officer and (i. 2. 84), (off-ice-r- 
and). 

Similarly within a word the unaccented vowel often suffers 
syncope before or after a "vowel-like": e.g. parallel (i. 2. 74), 
and popular (i. 2. 92). 

1 A dot under any letter (i) indicates that it is suppressed or slurred. 

2 A circle under a " vowel-like " (D denotes that it has syllabic value. 



156 APPENDIX C 

"Vowel-likes" underwent a still further reduction analogous to 
the suppression or slurring of vowels. Thus 1 or r could be partially 
suppressed before a consonant, e.g. 

And hith 1 (er) come in 't : | go, hence 1 with dil ] igence ! (i. 2. 304.) 

c. The "vowel-like" r often caused a preceding long vowel to be- 
come a diphthong out of which two syllables were developed: e.g. 
fairly spoke (iv. 1. 31) ; prayers (i. 1. 53); hour = ow-er (v. 1. 4). 

(3) Vowel and Vowel. 

Two adjacent vowels may be run into one in the same or in differ- 
ent words. 

a. In different words. 

This happens especially when the first word is the or to, e.g. th* 
event (i. 2. 117), th' afternoon (iii. 2. 96). Here the final vowel is 

altogether suppressed, but other final vowels rather formed a 

/^"^ 
diphthong with the initial vowel : e.g. How came we ashore ? (i. 2. 
158). 

b. In the same word. 

This is most frequent when the first vowel is i or w, which readily 

pass into y ovw: e.g. consciences (ii. 278) ; odious (iii. 1. 5). When 
a stressed vowel is followed by an unstressed, the two may have the 

value of one syllable: e.g. being (i. 2. 72), deity (ii. 1. 278). 

c. Contraction of vowels sometimes accompanies the loss of an 
intervening consonant. 

Thus even in its adverbial sense is a monosyllable in 85 cases 
out of 100, and is often spelled e'en. (But the adjective even is 
always two syllables.) So ever and never are often one syllable, 
and over is so in more than 60 per cent cases. Whether, rather, 
other, and whither also are often monosyllables. 



GLOSSARY 



abysm (i. 2. 50), abyss, from 
O.F. abisme, abime, late Lat. 
ahyssimus, a superl. of abyssus; 
lit, " the profoundest depth." 

amain (iv. 1. 74), at full speed, 
swiftly. The word literally 
means " in strength " — a = 
on or in, and main = strength, 
from O.E. mcegen. " Appar- 
ently not preceded by an 
earlier full on main, but formed 
in sixteenth century after 
words in a-, as afoot " (Mur- 
ray). 

amazement (i. 2. 14), confusion, 
distress of mind ; stronger 
than mere astonishment. So 
amazedly in stage direction 
(v. 1. 216) means "in a state 
of bewilderment." M.E. 
amase, which had often the 
sense of producing disaster as 
well as confusion. Cf , Richard 
II, i. 3. 81, " amazing thun- 
der." 

attached (iii. 3. 5), seized, at- 
tacked by. O.F. aiachier, from 
a root probably cognate with 
English tack; hence probably 
= to tack to. 

betid(i. 2. 31), happened. M.E. 
be-tiden, happen, a synonym 
of tiden, from O.E. tid-an, 
happen. 

blow (iii. 1. 63), deposit eggs on, 
foul, sully. Cf. Love's La- 
bour's Lost, V. 2. 408-409: 

" these summer flies 
Have blown me full of maggot osten- 
tation." 

bootless (i. 2. 35), profitless, 
useless. O.E. bot, advantage, 
profit. The substantive I 



" boot " is used by Shake- 
speare in Richard II, i. 
1. 164: "there is no boot," 
i.e. there is no help or use. 

bosky (iv. 1. 81), woody, from 
Mid. Lat. boscus, a wood. Cf. 
Comus, 313, " every bosky 
bower." 

brave (i. 2. 6, 206), fine. F. 
brave, brave, gay, fine, proud, 
braggard, valiant (Cotgrave). 

candied (ii. 1. 279), congealed, 
crystallized (see note). Pers. 
qand, sugar ; Skr. kkdndava, 
sweetmeats. 

cat o' mountain (iv. 1. 262). 
" Probably one of the smaller 
varieties of the leopard, and 
the name was apparently not 
strictly confined to one ani- 
naal " (Wright) . Thus Topsell 
gives it as a synonym for a 
leopard, Minsheu for a wild 
cat, and Florio for an ounce. 

catch (iii. 2. 126), a part-song. 
" Catch, round, or roundelay, 
and canon in unison are, in 
music, nearly the same thing. 
In all, the harmony is to be 
sung by several persons, and 
is so contrived that, though 
each sings precisely the same 
notes as his fellows, yet by 
beginning at stated periods of 
time from each other, there 
results a harmony of as many 
parts as there are singers. 
The catch differs only in that 
the words of one part are made 
to answer or catch the other, 
as ' Ah ! how Sophia ' sung like 
'a house o' fire.'" (Chappell, 
Popular Mv^ic of the Olden 
Time) , quoted by Wright. 



157 



158 



GLOSSARY 



certes (iii. 3. 30), certainly. 
O.F. certes, more fully (ac- 
cording to Littre) a certes, 
from probably late pop. Lat. 
a certis, on certain grounds. 

chanticleer (i. 2. 385), the cock. 
Originally a proper name: 
O.F. chantecler, the name of the 
cock in the O.F, romance, 
Reynard the Fox. It means 
" the clear singer," from chan- 
ter, to sing, and cler, clear. 

chirurgeonly (ii. 1. 140), like a 
surgeon. Chirurgeon is the 
old spelling of surgeon. F. 
chirurgien, Gr. x^^povpyos, a 
worker with the hands. 

chough (ii. 1. 266), red-legged 
crow. Cognate with O.E. ceo; 
named from cawing. 

cockerel (ii. 1. 31), a young 
cock, applied satirically to a 
young man. A diminutive of 
cock; perhaps of Anglo-Fr. 
origin, but no such word found 
in O.F. dictionaries; perhaps 
of English formation ; the 
termination seems to be the 
same as in haggerel, mongrel, 
pickerel. (See Murray.) 

coil (i. 2. 207), confusion, up- 
roar. Gaelic goil, rage, battle. 

complexion (i. 1. 32), constitu- 
tion, from Lat. complexionem. 
It referred in M.E. " to the 
four Humours mixed in vary- 
ing proportions in each human 
body ; so Chaucer, * of his 
complexion he was sanguin.' 
Thence it denoted as now 
(2) the outer appearance of 
the face as an index of tem- 
perament, and then (3) outer 
appearance in general. All 
three meanings are common 
in Shakespeare " (Herford). 

control (i. 2. 439), contradict, 
confute ; the original meaning 
to check, verify, from O.F. 
contre-role, a duplicate register 
used to verify the official or 
first made roll. 

corollary (iv. 1. 57), a super- 
numerary. O.F. corolaire, " a 



corollarie ; a surplusage, over- 
plus, addition to, vantage 
above measure " (Cotgrave). 
Lat. corollarium, a present of 
a garland, a gratuity. 
crab (ii. 2. 171), crab apple. 
Skeat suggests that the word 
is perhaps allied to crah, the 
shellfish, i.e. pinching, sharp. 



dew-lapped (iii. 3. 45), with a 
piece of loose skin hanging 
from the throat. The second 
element is O.E. lappa, pen- 
dulous piece, lappet, lobe; 
the first is uncertain. 

ecstasy (iii. 3. 108), commotion 
of mind. Used in E.E. of any 
mental disturbance, whether 
due to joy, grief, or any other 
cause. O.F. ecsiase, through 
the Latin, from Gr. exo-rasis, 
displacement. 

f eater (ii. 1273), more grace- 
fully. 

featly (i. 2. 380), nimbly, grace- 
fully. 

flat-long (ii. 1. 181), with the flat 
side. There were some ad- 
verbs in O.E. , originally dative 
feminine singular, ending in 
-inga, -unga, -linga, -lunga. 
A few of these, without the 
dative suffix, exist under the 
form -ling or -long, as head- 
long, sidelong, darkling, fiat- 
ling, and fiatlong. The last 
two words were specially used 
of a blow with the flat of a 
sword ; cf. Spenser, Faerie 
Queene, v. 5. 18: " Tho' with 
her sword on him she flatling 
strooke," and Sidney's Ar- 
cadia, in the description of 
Pamela's execution, " The pit- 
tilesse sword had such pittie 
of so precious an object that 
at first it did but hit fiatlong." 

flote (i. 2. 234), sea, from O.E. 
flot; cf. Ger. fiuth. 

foison (ii. 1. 163; iv. 1. 110), 



GLOSSARY 



159 



'' plenty. O.F. foison, Lat. fu- 
sionem. 

frippery (iv. 1. 226), an old- 
clothes shop. Cotgrave trans- 
lates O.F. friperie as " a 
friperie, broker's shop, street 
of brokers or of fripiers," and 
he de&nes fripier as " a mender 
or trimmer up of old garments, 
and a seller of them so 
mended." O.F. fripper, to 
rub up and down, to wear to 
rags. 

gaberdine (ii. 2. 40) , a long frock 
of coarse material. Extended 
from Span, gaban, a great 
coat with a hood. 

bests (i. 2. 274), commands. 

O.E. JicBS, command. The 

final t is excrescent, as in 

whils-t, among s-t. 
help (i. 2. 63) , helped. Curtailed 

from holpen, p. part, of O.E. 

helpan. 

inch-meal (ii. 2. 3), by inches. 
Compounded of inch, from 
O.E. ynce, with mutation from 
Lat. uncia, and meal, from 
O.E. mcelum, dat. plu. of 
mcel, piece. Cf. piecemeal. 

inherit (iv. 1. 154), possess. 
O.F. enheriter, Lat. hereditare, 
to become heir to. It often 
has the sense of " possess " 
in poetry in E.E. by transfer 
from an act to its sequel. 

kibe (ii. 1. 276), chilblain. 
Welsh cibwst = cib-gwst, com- 
pounded from cib, a cup, and 
gwst, a humor, malady ; 
hence a " cup-like malady," 
from the rounded form. The 
English word has preserved 
only the syllable cib, reject- 
ing the latter syllable (Skeat). 

lieu (i. 2. 123), literally " place," 
from Lat. locum. Hence in 
lieu of = in place of, instead 
of, and thus " in return for." 



manage (i. 2. 70), management. 
Originally like its immediate 
source, O.F. manage, a tech- 
nical term for the manage- 
ment of horses. Cf. 1 Henry 
IV, ii. 3. 52: " Speak terms 
of manage to thy bounding 
steed." 

mantle (v. 1. 67), cover with a 
scvun; cf. "filthy-mantled 
pool " (iv. 1. 182). The verb 
is formed from the subs. 
mantle, a cloak or covering ; 
M.E. mantel, O.F. mantel, 
Lat. mnntellum,, a napkin or 
covering. 

marmoset (ii. 2. 174), a small 
American monkey. The 
name, however, is older than 
the discovery of America, as 
Maundeville mentions " apes, 
marmozettes, babewynes." 
O.F. marmoset, translated by 
Cotgrave, " the cock of a 
cistern or fountain, any antick 
image from whose teats water 
trilleth, any puppet or an- 
tick." " Thus it meant a 
grotesque creature, originally 
a grotesque ornament on a 
fountain. Formed by a Pari- 
sian change of r to s, as in 
chaise for chaire (a chair), 
from Low Lat. marmoretum, 
a thing made in marble, ap- 
plied to fountains. At the 
same time, the transference in 
sense from * drinking-foun- 
tain ' to ' ape ' was certainly 
helped on by confusion with 
F. marmot, a marmoset or 
little monkey " (Skeat). 

meddle (i. 2. 22), mix, mingle. 
M.E. medlen, O.F. medler, 
from Low Lat. misculare, Lat. 
miscere. 

merely (i. 1. 59), entirely, ab- 
solutely, from Lat. merus, 
pure. 

minion (iv. 1. 98), favorite, from 
F. m.ignon, dainty, pleasing, 
kind. Same root as O.H.G. 
minna, memory, love, whence 
minnesinger = singer of love. 



160 



GLOSSARY 



moe (ii. 1. 133), more. " M.E. 
ma, mo, O.E. m,d, moe, to 
mdra, ' greater ' ; used (1) as 
a neut. subst., (2) as adv. 
The former usage, in which 
it was often coupled with a 
partitive gen., as ' m,a manna, 
a greater number of men,' i.e. 
' more men,' led to the E.E. 
use, in which it was treated 
as the comp. of many, while 
more remained the comp. of 
much " (Herford). 

moon-calf (ii. 2. 114), an abor- 
tion, a monstrosity, a person 
or conception influenced by 
the moon. 

mow (ii. 2. 9), make grimaces. 
F. moue, a mouth, a pouting 
face. O.Du. mouwe, the pro- 
truded underlip in making a 
grimace. 

murrain (iii. 2. 88), a plague. 
M.E. moraine, allied to O.F. 
morine, a carcass of a_ beast; 
from O.F. morir, to die, Lat. 
mori. 

nerves (i. 2. 484), sinews, mus- 
cles. This is the usual sense 
of the word in E.E., whereas 
sinew in E.E. often corres- 
ponds with Md.E. nerve, Lat. 
nervum. 

ninny (iii. 2. 71), simpleton. 
Ital. ninno, a child. 

nonpareil (iii. 2. 108), a match- 
less creature. The adj. used 
as subs., F. non = not, and 
pareil = like. 

owes (i. 2. 407), owns, possesses. 
O.E. dg, dh, possess. The 
modern sense arises from the 
notion of_ obligation, regarded 
as attaching to a man, like a 
possession. 

pard (iv. 1. 262), panther. 

passion (i. 2. 392; iv. 1. 143), 
strong emotion of any kind. 
The word is not confined in 
E.E. to its modern sense of 
" anger," but, like the Lat. 



passio and Gr. iraQo?, is 
used for the " suffering " of 
any vehement feeling. 

patch (iii. 2. 71), paltry fellow, 
fool. Probably a nickname 
derived from the fool's patch- 
like or motley dress. Cf. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, 
iv. 1. 215: "man is but a 
patched fool." Wright, how- 
ever, connects it with Italian 
pazzo, a fool or idiot. 

pertly (iv. 1. 58), briskly. Feri 
in M.E. is another form of 
perh (adj.), smart; but in 
some cases it is short for 
apert, as in F. m,alapert, from 
Lat. male + apertus, too open 
or ready. The two words 
became confused, hence the 
modern meaning " forward,", 
" impudent." 

pied (iii. 2. 71), parti-colored. 
Used of Trinculo because of 
the motley dress which he wore 
as jester. Pie, a magpie, Lat. 
pica. 

Poor- John (ii. 2. 28), hake, 
salted and dried. 

premises (i. 2. 123), conditions 
previously made. O.F. pre- 
misse, Lat. praemissa (sen- 
tentia being understood), a 
condition sent or stated before- 
hand. 

prevent (i. 2. 350), forestall, and 
so interfere with. In E.E. 
the original meaning of the 
word, " anticipation,'' rather 
than " interference," is gener- 
ally predominant. O.F. pre- 
venir, to come before. 

prime (i. 2. 72), first, chief. 
Lat. primus. 

quaint (i. 2. 317), trim, fine, 
dainty. O.F. coint, from Lat. 
cognitus, well-known. Used 
originally = knowing, pru- 
dent. A. W. Verity quotes in 
illustration from Hampole's 
Psalter, Ps. cxix. 98 : " Aboven 
myn enmys quaynt thou me 
made," where the A.V. has 



GLOSSARY 



161 



vdser. But later F. coint, 
being wrongly supposed to 
come from Lat. comptus, 
adorned, got the sense "trim." 
This influenced English 
" quaint," which got the same 
sense, in which it is always 
used by Shakespeare. 

rate (i. 2. 92; ii. 1. 109), estima- 
tion. Lat. ratus, p. part, of 
reor, think, deem. 

renown (v. i. 193), report. M.E. 
renoun or renommee, F. re- 
nomme, from Lat. re, again, 
and nomen, name. 

sack (ii. 2. 125), a Spanish white 
wine. Probably a corruption 
of F. sec, dry. In a Worcester 
MS. for 1592 it is spelled seek. 
In a French version of a proc- 
lamation for regulating the 
prices of wine, 1633, " sacks " 
is translated vins sees. 

sans (i. 2. 97), without. A 
French word borrowed in four- 
teenth century, and originally 
used in French phrases only, 
e.g. sans doute; but used in 
E.E. in combination with 
English words, e.g. As You 
Like It, ii. 7. 166: " Sans 
teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, 
sans everything." 

scandal' d (iv. 1. 90), scandalous; 
pass, form with active mean- 
ing. Lat. scandalum, Gr. vxo-v- 
Sa\ov, stumbling-block, offence, 
scandal. 

signories (i. 2. 71), states of N. 
Italy, under the government of 
single princes, originally owing 
feudal obedience to the Holy 
Roman Empire. It. signoria, 
lordship, government, from 
Lat. senior, older, superior. 

sot (iii. 2. 101), fool. O.F. sot. 
Among the equivalents given 
for this by Cotgrave are : 
" asse, dunce, dullard, block- 
head, loggerhead, groutnoll, 
iobernoll, grouthead, ioult- 
head." 



stale (iv. 1. 187), a decoy, a 
snare. O.E. stalu, theft. 

swabber (ii. 2. 48), one who 
sweeps the deck with a swab 
or mop. Connected with 
Dutch, zwabberen, to drudge. 

laborer (iii. 2. 161), dnunmer. 
A tabor is a small side drum 
generally associated with the 
fife. Arabic, tabl, a drum. 

tackle (i. 2. 147), ropes. M.E. 
takel. The suffix -el denotes 
the agent ; thus takel is that 
which takes or grasps, from its 
holding the masts firmly. 

teen (i. 2. 64), sorrow. M.E. 
tene, O.E. tedna, accusation, 
vexation. 

tell (ii. 1. 15), count. O.E. 
tellan. 

trice (v. 1. 238), a moment. 
Spanish en un tris; from tris, 
the noise made by the cracking 
of glass; a crack, an instant. 

troll (iii. 2. 126), roll off the 
tongue, sing ; derivation un- 
certain. Connected appar- 
ently with O.F. tr oiler, which 
Cotgrave explains by " hounds 
to trowle, ravage, or hunt out 
of order." Skeat therefore de- 
fines " troll a catch," to sing 
it irregularly. 

twink (iv. 1. 43), the twinkUng 
of an eye. M.E. twinken, to 
blink, wink. 

vouched (ii. 1. 60), warranted. 
O.F. voucher, to vouch, cite, 
pray in aid in a suit. Lat. 
vocare, to call upon. 

welkin (i. 2. 4), sky; properly a 
plural word = clouds. Cf. 
M.E. welken = O.E. wolcnu, 
clouds, plural of wolcen, a 
cloud. Cf. Germ, wolke. 

wezand (iii. 2. 99), windpipe. 
O.E. wcesend. 

yare (i. 1. 7), ready, quick. 
yarely (i. 1. 4), quickly, nimbly. 
M.E. zare, O.E. gedro, ready. 



INDEX OF WORDS 



(The references are to the Notes ad loo. Other words will be 
found in the Glossary.) 



a = on, ii. 1. 185. 
abuse, v. 1. 112. 
accidents, v. 1. 305. 
aches, 1. 2. 370. 
advance, 1. 2. 408. 
adventure, ii. 1. 187-188. 
after, ii. 2. 10. 
again, i. 2. 390. 
alone, iv. 1. 231. 
an, ii. 1. 181. 
and, i. 2. 186; ii. 2. 15. 
as, i. 2. 70. 
aspersion, iv. 1. 18. 
avoid, iv. 1. 142. 
azured, v. 1. 43. 

backward, i. 2. 50. 

banks, iv. 1. 64. 

barefoot way, ii. 2. 11. 

barnacles, iv. 1. 249. 

beak, i. 2. 196. 

bear off, ii. 2. 18-19. 

bear up, iii. 2. 3. 

beating, i. 2. 176; iv. 1. 163. 

betid, i. 2. 31. 

blue-eyed, i. 2. 269. 

bombard, ii. 2. 21. 

both, i. 2. 450. 

brained, iii. 2. 7. 

broom-groves, iv. 1. 66. 

bully-monster, v. 1. 257-258. 

but, i. 2. 119, 414. 

butt, i. 2. 146. 

by and by, iii. 2. 156. 

candied, ii. 1. 279. 
cankers, iv. 1. 192. 



changed eyes, i. 2. 441. 
chough of as deep chat, ii. 1. 265- 

266. 
clear, iii. 3. 82. 
closeness, i. 2. 90. 
cloudy, ii. 1. 142. 
cold, i. 1. 55. 
conduct, V. 1. 244. 
constant, i. 2. 207. 
corollary, iv. 1. 57. 
correspondent, i. 2. 297. 
cracks, i. 2, 203. 

dear, ii. 1. 135. 
deboshed, iii. 2. 29. 
deck'd, i. 2. 155. 
delivered, ii. 1. 45. 
disease, v. 1. 85. 
discharge, ii, 1. 253-254. 
distempered, iv. 1. 145. 
ditty, i. 2. 405. 
doit, ii. 2. 33. 
dowle, iii. 3. 65. 
drollery, iii. 3. 21. 
dry, i. 2. 112. 
dulness, i. 2. 185. 

engine, ii. 1. 161. 
entertainment, i. 2. 465. 
envy, i. 2. 258. 
estate, iv. 1. 85. 
eye, ii. 1. 55. 

fall, ii. 1. 296. 
fated, i. 2. 129. 
features, iii. 1. 52. 
fellows, ii. i. 274. 
162 



INDEX OF WORDS 



163 



filthy-mantled, iv. 1. 182. 
footing, iv. 1. 138. 
foot it featly, i. 2. 380. 
for, i. 1.49; i. 2. 232, 272. 
fortli-rights, iii. 3. 3. 
founder'd, iv. 1. 30. 
fraughting, i. 2. 13. 
freely, iv. 1. 85. 
frees, Epil. 18. 
from, i. 2. 65. 
full, i. 2. 20. 

genius, iv. 1. 27. 
gilded, V. 1. 280. 
glasses, i. 2. 240. 
good, i. 1. 3. 
goss, iv. 1. 180. 
grand, i. 2. 274. 

heaviness, i. 2. 307. 
heavy, iii. 1. 5. 
hint, i. 2. 134-135. 
hollowly, iii. 1. 70. 
home, V. 1. 71. 
hoodwink, iv. 1. 206. 
hours, i. 2. 174. 

ignorant, v. 1. 67. 
infest, V. 1. 246. 
inherit, ii. 2. 179. 
inquisition, i. 2. 35. 
into, i. 2. 277. 
invert, iii. 1. 70. 
it, i. 2. 134; ii. 1. 163. 
its, i. 2. 95. 

Jack, iv. 1. 200-201. 
justify. V. 1. 128. 

lakin, iii. 3. 1. 
laugh, ii. 1. 190. 
laughter, ii. 1. 33. 
learning, i. 2. 365. 
like, iii. 3. 66. 
lime, iv. 1. 246. 
line, iv. 1. 193, 235-238. 
loathness, ii. 1. 130. 
lorded, i. 2. 97, 



malice, i. 2. 367. 
massy, iii. 3. 67. 
meanders, iii. 3. 3. 
merchant, ii. 1. 5-6. 
might, i. 2. 118. 
miss, i. 2. 311. 
morsel, ii. 1. 286. 
mount, ii. 2. 11. 

neat's-leather, ii. 2. 73. 
nor, i. 2. 488. 
note, ii. 1. 248. 
nothing, ii. 1. 171. 
nurture, iv. 1. 189. 

odd, i. 2. 223. 
of, i. 1. 24. 
old, i. 2. 369. 
opportune, iv. 1. 26. 
oppress'd, iii. 3. 15. 
or ere, i. 2. 11. 
out, i. 2. 41. 
over- topping, i. 2. 81. 

pains, i. 2. 242. 
pass of pate, iv. 1. 244. 
piece, i. 2. 56. 
pig-nuts, ii. 2. 172. 
pioned, iv. 1. 64. 
piteous, i. 2. 14. 
plantation, ii. 1. 143. 
pole-clipt, iv. 1. 68. 
presented, iv. 1. 167. 
presently, i. 2. 125. 
princesses, i. 2. 173. 
professes, ii. 1. 236. 

quality, i. 2. 193. 
quickens, iii. 1. 6. 

race, i. 2. 358. 
rack, iv. 1. 156. 
recover, ii. 2. 71. 
reeling ripe, v. 1. 279. 
remember, i. 2. 243, 405. 
remorse, v. 1. 76. 
required, v. 1. 51. 
resolve, v. 1. 248. 



164 



INDEX OF WORDS 



revenue, i. 2. 98. 
rid, i. 2. 364. 
roarers, i. 1. 18. 
rounded, iv. 1. 158. 

sanctimonious, iv. 1. 16. 
scamels, ii. 2. 176. 
score, V. 1. 174. 
securing, ii. 1. 310. 
sensible, ii. 1. 175. 
should, ii. 1. 207. 
shroud, ii. 2. 42. 
skilless, iii. 1. 53. 
sociable, v. 1. 63. 
something, i. 2. 414. 
sometime, ii. 2. 9. 
sort, iv. 1. 146. 
spiriting, i. 2. 298. 
spurs, V. 1. 47. 
standard, iii. 2, 18. 
steaded, i. 2. 165. 
still, V. 1. 214. 
stock-fish, iii. 2. 78-79. 
stomach, i. 2. 157. 
stover, iv. 1. 63. 
sty, i. 2. 342. 
subtilties, v. 1. 123-124. 
sudden, ii. 1. 306. 
suffered, ii. 2. 38. 
suggestion, ii. 1. 288. 
Sycorax, i. 2. 258. 

taken, iv. 1. 190. 
tang, ii. 2. 52. 
taste, V. 1. 123-124. 
tell, ii. 1. 15. 
temperance, ii. 1. 42. 
tender, ii. 1. 270. 



the which, i. 2. 137. 
thou 'rt best, i. 2. 366. 
time, ii. 1. 138. 
to, ii. 1. 75. 
trash, i. 2. 81. 
try, i. 1. 38. 
twilled, iv. 1. 64. 

undergoing, i. 2. 157. 
unmitigable, i. 2. 276. 
up-staring, i. 2. 213. 
urchins, i. 2. 326. 
urchin-shows, ii. 2. 5. 

vanity, iv. 1. 41. 
vast, i. 2. 327-328. 

waist, i. 2. 197. 

ways, ii. 2. 85. 
weather-fends, v. 1. 10, 
weigh'd, ii. 1. 130. 
what, iii. 1. 71. 
when, i. 2. 316. 
while-ere, iii. 2. 127. 
whist, i. 2. 376-380. 
who, i. 2. 7. 
wicked, i. 2. 321. 
windring, iv. 1. 128. 
wink, ii. 1. 242. 
wonder'd, iv. 1. 123. 
worm, iii. 1. 31. 
would, ii. 1. 183. 
wound, ii. 2. 13. 

yarely, i. 1. 3-4. 
your, ii. 2. 62. 

zenith, i. 2. 181. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Abbott's Shakespearian Gram- 
mar,!. 1. 17-18, 24,49; i.2. 11, 
19, 31, 53, 65, 80, 109, 118, 
137, 222, 232, 244, 277, 406, 
439, 450; ii. 1. 82, 127, 130- 
131, 163, 207, 220, 287, 296, 
321; ii. 2. 15; iii. 1. 1, 37, 62, 
71, 79; iii. 2. 101, 106, 109; 
iii. 3. 53-56, 62, 80, 92, 93; 
iv. 1. 123, 126, 218; v. 1. 15, 
43, 139, 249, 310. 

adverb as noun, i. 2. 50. 

Amphion, ii. 1. 86-87. 

Apollo, ii. 1. 86-87. 

Ariel's costume, i. 2. 188, 375. 

aurum potabile, v. 1. 280. 

Bacon, i. 2. 99-102; his Sylva 

Sylvarum, iv. 1. 156. 
badges of servants, v. 1. 267. 
ballad of King Stephen, iv. 1. 

222-223. 
bat-fowling, ii. 1. 185. 
Bermoothes, i. 2. 229. 
Boswell, i. 2. 266. 
Browning, i. 2. 180-184. 

chess, V. 1. 164. 

Coleridge, i. 2. 53, 237-204, 408; 

ii. 1. init, 204-296. 
Coleridge, Hartley, iv. 1. 60-138. 
Coryat's Crudities, ii. 2. 33. 
crises in life, i. 2. 180-184. 

"dead Indian," ii. 2. 34. 

Dis, iv. 1. 89. 

Discovery of Guiana, iii. 3. 46-47. 

Discovery of Witchcraft, i. 2. 326. 

double comparative, i. 2. 19, 

439. 
double negative, i. 2. 406;* iii. 

2. 101. 



165 



Dowden, ii. 1. init., 156-158 ; iii. 

1. 81-86 ; iii. 2. init. ; Epil. init. 
Dyce, i. 2. 169; ii. 1. 308-309; 

iv. 1. 156. 

Eden's History of Travayle, i. 2. 
373. 

Essex' speech about Queen Eliza- 
beth, iv. 1. 192. 

ethical dative, i. 2. 244. 

Frobisher, ii. 2. 34. 
Furness, i. 1. 69; i. 2. 53; ii. 1. 
104,298; iii. 1. 15; iii. 2. 132. 
Furnivall, i. 2. 99-102. 

General Practise of Physicke, i. 2. 
364. 

" genius, " as constituting a man's 
personality, iv. 1. 27. 

goitre, iii. 3. 45-46. 

golden whistle as mark of office, 
i. 1. 8. 

Gonzalo's imaginary common- 
wealth, ii. 1. 147-164. 

Gosse, i. 2. 376-380. 

"green sour ringlets," v. 1. 37. 

Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 1. 38; i. 2. 

198. 
Hales, i. 2. 258. 
Halliwell-PhUlips, ii. 1. 190; ii. 

2. 21. 
Hanmer, i. 1. 69; iv. 1. 66. 
Harting, ii. 2. 176. 
Hawkins, iv. 1. 3. 
Henslowe, i. 2. 375. 
Herford, ii. 1. 181. 
Heywood, i. 2. 370; his Philo- 

cotkonista, ii. 2. 21. 
Humane Industry, iii. 3. 65. 
Hymen's lamp, iv. i. 22-23. 



166 



GENERAL INDEX 



Johnson, i. 1. init 

Jonson's Every Man out of his 
Humour, iii, 3. 48; his Fortu- 
nate Isles, i. 2. 188; his Hy- 
menoei, iv. 1. 97, 156. 

Juno's peacocks, iv. 1. 74. 

kissing before dancing, i. 2. 378. 

Lamb, i. 2. 266. 

long spoon for eating with the 

devil, ii. 2. 103. 
Lyly's Ewphues, i. 2. 469. 
Lyte's Herhal, i. 1. 69. 

Magellan, i. 2. 373. 

masque, its underlying concep- 
tion, iv. 1. init.; its merits, iv. 
1. 60-138. 

Medea's incantation, v. 1. 33-50. 

metaphor from carpentry, iv. 1. 
239 ; from gardening, i. 2. 81 ; 
from hunting, i. 2. 81; from 
theatre, ii. 1. 251. 

miraculous harp, ii. 1. 86-87. 

Montaigne, ii. 1. 147-164. 

MoraHty plays, ii. 2. 103. 

"most busy lest," iii. 1. 15. 

Moulton, i. 2. 198, 457-459 ; iii. 
i. init. ; iii. 3. init. ; iv. 1. init. 

Nobody is Somebody, iii. 2. 136. 
nominative for accusative, i. 2. 

80. 
Notes and Queries, iii. 3. 65. 

Ogilby's Accurate Descrijption of 
Africa, i. 2. 266. 

Paphos, iv. 1. 93. 
Philpott, i. 2. 99-102. 
phoenix, iii. 3. 22-24. 
pleonasm, ii. 1. 250. 
Pliny, iii. 3. 22-24. 
Praise at Parting, iii. 3. 39. 
prologues, ii. 1. 253. 
proverbs, i. 1. 31-36 ; i. 2. 94-95 ; 
ii. 2. 86; iii. 2. 132; iii. 3. 39. 



Raleigh's Discovery of Guiana, 

iii. 3. 46-47. 
red plague, i. 2. 364. 

St. Elmo's fire, i. 2. 198. 
second personal pronoun, its use 

in singular and plural, i. 2. 1. 
Setebos, i. 2. 373. 
Shakespeare's anti-communistic 

leanings, ii. 1. 156-158; his 

seamanship, i. 1. init.; ii. 2. 

44-55. 
Sir Huon de Bordeaux, v. 1. 164. 
Staunton, ii. 1. 94, 308-309; iv. 

1. 231, 235-238. 
Steevens, i. 2. 25; ii. 2. 176; 

iii. 3. 65 ; v. 1. 164. 
Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, 

ii. 2. 176. 
Strachey, i. 2. 334; ii. 2. 176; 

iii. 1. 9-10; iii. 2. 75. 

textual notes, i. 1. 69; i. 2. 26, 
29-31, 57-59, 99-102, 146, 
173, 200, 301-303, 339, 351- 
362, 378-379, 381, 382-383, 
396; ii. 1. 33, 94, 130-131, 168, 
181, 243, 250, 279; ii. 2. 187; 
iii. 1. 15; iii. 3. 36; iv. 1.3,9, 
123, 128, 156, 184, 231, 264; 
V. 1. 23, 60, 129. 

Topsell's History of Foure-footed 
Beasts, iv. 1. 30. 

travelers' insurance in Eliza- 
beth's time, iii. 3. 48. 

Urchins' Dance, i. 2. 326. 

Venus' sparrows, iv. 1. 100. 

water with berries in it, i. 2. 334. 
whom, with neuter antecedent, iii. 

3.62. 
Widow Dido, ii. 1. 76. 
word-play, i. 2. 83, 432; ii. 1. 

16-20, 33, 104; iv. 1. 235-238, 

239, 246. 

you and ye, use of, i. 2. 323. 



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